Ally is happy married to Luke, but she and her sister Miranda couldn't be more different. While Ally has four children and a cozy home life, Miranda is child-free, married to a millionaire, and living in an astounding show home. Ally gave up trying to compete years ago, so she is shocked when Miranda asks her if she will help provide the one thing that is missing from her perfect life: a baby. Ally has every sympathy for Miranda's infertility problems, but she wonders if she can have a baby and hand it over to someone else, even if that person is her own sister.
I think I decided that I wanted to be a writer at the age of five, while queueing in the freezing rain for the school outside loos. Perhaps it was all down to the romance of the location... But by the time I went home that night, I'd come to the conclusion that it wasn't a very realistic ambition, and I considered being a pixie instead.
Yet even when reality struck and I had to start earning money, the old dream died hard. And when I won 'Secretary of the Year' in 1987 and was asked to co-write a book about secretaries, it was the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to me (yes, even better than the Blue Peter competition badge I won when I was seven).
As time went on, I did everything I could to dig myself a foothold in the writing world, doing everything from writing jokes for greetings cards to articles about sewer-cleaning machines for 'Construction News'. I started translating French erotic novels, then began writing my own; and from there, I worked my way into more ... er ... mainstream fiction, first as Sue Dyson and then as Zoe Barnes. I still use the name Sue Dyson when I translate and when I sing professionally.
I'm married to Simon, and my dad, Jack, lives with us - along with five cats known locally as The Furry Horde. Please go out and buy a Zoe Barnes novel (or three) and ensure that they're a happy, well-fed Horde!
Zoe
xx
