At the age of 52, Bournemouth based Christine Aziz had been many things – freelance journalist, single mother, homeopath, dental receptionist, shop assistant, factory packer and frustrated, unpublished novelist.
The latter was to change when her novel-in-progress was chosen from 46,000 entries to win first prize in Richard and Judy’s How To Get Published competition. Christine was given a £50,000 advance and two months to finish her novel. In October 2005, The Olive Readers was published by Pan Macmillan.
Not bad for a woman who admits she was somewhat ‘in the doldrums’ with her writing. ‘I was beginning to think I was never going to be published. It just goes to show that you should never give up.’
The fact that first prize didn’t go to some bright young twenty-something is commendable, says Christine. ‘These days there’s a tremendous pressure to achieve before the age of 30. I really believe that many women writers come into their own post-menopause when their children have grown up and they have a wealth of experience behind them and a maturity in their writing. If I’d had this happen to me when I was twenty I don’t know that it would have been such a good thing.’
Despite her experience and maturity, Christine was hardly ready for the competition and what it might bring. ‘When I entered, I only had half a novel, and even that had been written in snatches. I’d been a single parent and a freelance journalist, and I’d written in a way I think a lot of women write – squeezing in some time before rushing off and doing all those other things that call you.’
Even Christine’s approach to entering the competition was rather desultory. ‘I entered because a friend suggested I should, and I wanted to be able to tell her I’d done it when she next telephoned! The other reason was that there was no entry fee – you have to pay for more creative writing competitions these days.’
‘When I found out I was in the final shortlist, I was over the moon. It was a huge confidence boost, but even then I never saw myself winning. I’d never won anything in my life and I thought the best thing that could come of getting this far would be the possibility of getting a qualifying letter from the panel which I could show to publishers.’
Winning the competition has brought extraordinary benefits. ‘Compared to most first time novelists I’ve been so lucky to receive the sort of publicity I seem to have had.’ But there have been cons too.
‘The literary media is, as a whole, rather dismissive of the Richard and Judy book club and I feel a certain snobbishness from certain circles about having been published through the show’s competition. The public love the club – 30 books are published every hour in Britain, so having guidance from the show about which books to read has been great. But the literary media turns its nose up.
There was also the problem of having to write the remainder of her novel in so short a time. ‘My writing definitely changed after I won the competition. I felt a tremendous pressure and expectations were high. The thought that I’d been picked from 46,000 people made my mind boggle.’
All that aside, Christine is already working on a second novel. ‘At the moment I’m ‘composting’ – thinking about my characters and plot. Having said that, my plans tend to change as soon as I start writing. I like being surprised; I like it when a character does something I hadn’t planned on. It’s like they have a will of their own sometimes.’
Read more about Richard & Judy’s book club.
A list of creative writing competitions for unpublished authors is printed in the quarterly magazine The New Writer.
Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third party sites. Images courtesy of Pan Macmillan.
Published on 7 October 2005 by Pan Macmillan, Christine Aziz’s first novel is ‘a portrait of a dystopian future and a love story of both courage and redemption. It is a tale of a woman writing from the future, telling of a world we would all shiver to inhabit’.
Says Christine: ‘I write about a future where the world is set up into corporate states. Books have been banned. One day a young woman discovers a secret library which transforms her life’.
‘There was no novel plan. I was just sitting at my computer one day and the first sentence just jumped out of me. From there it took on a shape but I didn’t know how it would end until I wrote the ending. I wanted the writing to be a pleasure, an escapism, and I hope that’s how it feels to read it too.’
Buy The Olive Readers on Amazon.
