The highly-regarded author, who grew up in Nantwich, Cheshire, always wanted to write but felt a small-town girl like her had no chance against the posh novelists from London.
Now, however, having just received the Romantic Novelist of the Year award for her debut novel from TV presenter Fern Britton, she is slowly getting used to the idea that all she dreamed of is coming true.
“I think it’s because of the North-South Divide, but for somebody born and brought up in the north, I am taken aback by all that’s happened!” laughs Iona, whose romantic novel Letters To The Lost has been enjoying rave reviews.
“To me, everything was London-centric and writing wasn’t an option for someone like me, but now I think you get a book published on merit, not because of where you’re from.
“So maybe I was lacking confidence, too.
“I tried to write a book when I was about 12 or 13, and spent a while filling an exercise book with a whole synopsis, but never got round to actually writing it after all that!
“As an adult, I don’t plan anything in case I get bogged down and give up.
“That early attempt was also a romance, which is funny became my mum hates romances and is very scientific. She likes biographies.
“But I also had a stepmum after my parents split up, and on a holiday, my brother found her Jilly Cooper novel in the glove compartment of the car.
“It said the word ‘Virgin’ on the front cover, and he said: ‘I think it’s going to be rude!’
“He got bored, but I sat down and read it, and it was like a door had opened. The characters were larger than life, they told fibs, got caught doing embarrassing things, they were attractive.
“I just thought: ‘I want to be part of this world.’”
Today, Iona has mastered the romantic style, and as she reveals, it is not just younger ladies who get in touch to say they love her book.
“I had a wonderful letter two weeks ago from an 84-year-old gentleman in Norfolk,” she reveals.
“He wrote: ‘I loved your book, and it reduced me to tears at the end, much to the surprise of my wife.’
“He had been a small boy during the war, and was befriended by the American crews of the B24 Liberators.
“He said reading my book had taken him right back to those times.
“It was so lovely, to know I had an older reader, because you tend to think your readers will be just like yourself. You really can’t make any assumptions.”
But we can safely assume that we’ll be hearing a lot more about this great, new British author in years to come.
The award-winning Letters To The Lost, by Iona Grey, is out now, published by Simon & Schuster, ISBN No. 978-1-47113-982-6.
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