Never Look Back

Lesley Pearse was born in Rochester, Kent. After the death of her mother when she was three, Lesley spent three years in a Roman Catholic Children’s home. Her father was a Royal Marine, and three years later married an ex-army nurse and Lesley was reunited with her older brother and gained a new foster sister, who was later adopted with a baby boy. At the age of eleven, Lesley's family moved to South London where her father began work at the post office. Even at this age, Lesley was a storyteller which she notes ‘made up for being useless at any sport’. Despite her love for writing, her main ambition as a child was to marry and have six children. After working various jobs from clerk to children's nanny, she moved on to Promotion and a brief stint as a Playboy Bunny. Eventually, she concluded six children was far too many and settled for three. After her youngest daughter was born, Lesley began her writing career with short stories and then moved on to books. Her novel Georgia, based loosely on her own experiences, was first to be published. With 25 books to her name and over 10 million copies sold worldwide, Lesley notes, ‘Once I started writing I couldn’t stop. I felt I had hundreds of stories to tell.’ Lesley now lives in a cliff-top house in Devon with her King Charles Cavalier, Stan.