Let’s start with a big cheer of congratulations and a round of applause. Jill Mansell has hit the heights of the best sellers charts – again – with her latest paperback Rumour Has It. No wonder she feels ‘writing really is it’. Not that writing has always been the whole of ‘it’.

‘I was arty at school and thought of going to art college but doing badly at art O level knocked the stuffing out of me,’ she says.

The art world’s loss is ‘rom com’s’ gain. For eighteen years Jill enjoyed working as a clinical neuro-physiology technician in electro encephalography (she could do and spell it!) – only writing in her spare time. ‘I began writing after reading an inspirational article about previously impoverished women – Ann Hampson and Charlotte Lamb – whose lives had been turned around by writing for Mills and Boon. I tried, I wrote five or six – I still have the rejection letters to prove it. But I can’t get deeply emotional in my books, they tend to become flippant and comedic and M&B didn’t like the comedy.’

Fortunately, others did. ‘The first book I wrote I gave to my husband’s friend at work to be typed. I never saw it again – and somehow I couldn’t ask. Then I wrote Fast Friends and approached some publishers. The first turned it down because too much was happening in the plot; the second turned it down because not enough was happening; but the third, Transworld, thought it was just right!’

It wasn’t a best seller though it did sell 50,000 copies. But when the sales of the next five books went down – despite a change of covers – Transworld let her go. Having given up the day job and with a second child on the way, rejections by publishers who were ‘interested but not enough to take me on’ hit hard. Until Mixed Doubles was accepted by Headline. It became a ‘very best seller’. Sales then began to rise with each ensuing book – and they haven’t stopped.

‘Writing has changed my life. It’s been fantastic.’ Her books have been translated into twenty languages (‘how do you find an American equivalent for Joyce Grenfell, Tommy Cooper, or courgettes?’) and Jill spends part of her time on book tours around the world.

‘At first the biggest thrill was seeing my book in bookshops. Now I’ve got used to that. But I never take success for granted. I’m still neurotic about sales even after my twentieth book. I never show my work in progress to anyone, even if I’m stuck with the plot. I feel very self conscious about my writing and until it becomes an actual book no one sees it.’

Once the book is finished Jill still thinks, ‘That’s the worse one ever. My earlier experience makes me frightened the editor will reject it. It’s not until I see the transcript in book form that I can finally accept it’s good enough.’

Does she have a favourite? ‘Not really. They were each fine in their time, but the older books are dated, like characters not having mobile phones.’ Open House was written when Princess Di and Sarah Ferguson made it fashionable to be seeing a psychic, but things have changed.

Writing one a year, how easy is it to embrace new characters? ‘I shed characters like old clothes. I forget their names and never think of them again – which can become difficult when fans talk to me about them. But plot lines stay with me – and can come back again if I’m not careful. I look for a new hook from the TV or papers, a ‘what if?’ idea. Then I think of a nice setting either a village in the Cotswolds or Cornwall, or a town like London or Bristol. Then I look in the baby names book making sure the names go together and aren’t too similar. After that somehow the characters seem to have their lives mapped out. I never write them down, I just know. And I never visualise what they look like, their faces aren’t important, I only listen to them.’

Does she ever include people she knows? ‘Never! I like being in charge and if they’re fictional they can say and do whatever I want.’

What about her writing approach? Although ‘the writing itself is a joy’, Jill doesn’t like plotting. ‘I’ve tried winging it, I’ve tried having a vague plan and I’ve tried blocking in details, though never more than thirty pages at a time in case I get a better idea. But I write instinctively and don’t worry about things like ‘narrative arcs’. I fill out a time line on ‘post its’ so I can’t forget any characters, I write the whole book then divide it into chapters wherever there’s a natural break and I never have a working title – that only comes after the book’s been accepted.’

Perhaps one of the reasons Jill’s books are so popular is that they are essentially happy books. ‘When I was eleven I wrote long happy stories. I never wanted anything to go wrong. I hated books when bad things started happening. If I’d written Titanic it would never have hit the iceberg.’

How much research does she do? ‘Not a lot. I skim over things I don’t know about. Like a recent character was working as a PA. I’ve never worked in an office so I’ve no idea what they do – besides typing, shorthand and putting things in envelopes. And it’s something Google can’t tell you. But Google Earth is the best thing ever. If I need to have a bench on Primrose Hill, I can check exactly where they are.’ 

Despite liking Google, Jill doesn’t write onto a computer. Her books are literally hand crafted while sitting on the sofa in the living room, feet on the coffee table – or in bed if the kids are watching TV – a Harley Davidson fountain pen in one hand, writing pad in the other. 

‘And I have the TV on all the time. Talking not music, that would be distracting. I get ideas from it. I can mentally switch off if it’s not interesting but I need it in the background.’ Originally her mother typed her books. After she died, Jill’s daughter Lydia took over the task, until she went to University. ‘She used to be embarrassed about me but found her friends were reading my books, so she’s getting used to it. My son still won’t tell friends at his new school.’ 

Jill celebrated her first novel ‘by getting three sheets to the wind on champagne I couldn’t afford’ with enthusiastic and encouraging friends. Not much change there then! So let’s join them in a toast to Jill’s well-earned success.

www.jillmansell.co.uk