Local author Marcia Willett did not begin her career as a novelist until she was fifty years old - proving that it's never too late to start.

Until then she had been an avid reader and had never considered writing. When her writer husband, Rodney, suggested that she should—she laughed and dismissed the whole thing out of hand.

However, after months of nagging she agreed, for the sake of peace and quiet, to see what she could do. Eventually, she handed Rodney the manuscript of her first novel and said, ‘Right, I’ve written it—now you sell it’. So he did.

In an interview with Becky Moran, Marcia remembers how her career as a writer began:

"When my husband tried to persuade me to write years before, I never particularly wanted to write a book and thought I would have no idea. I always returned to my first love, reading. Eventually he did persuade me. We had a bit of a financial crisis and he asked me to try. He said it would all flow out and he was right."

Since her first novel Marcia has written twenty-one more (one is in production and will be published in 2008) as well as a number of short stories. Most of the books are written under her own name, four under the pseudonym ‘Willa Marsh.’ She is, as you would expect, working on number twenty-three.

All Marcia's novels are set in the Westcountry. She was born in Somerset, but has been settled in Devon for 27 years. Things could indeed have been very different though - until she was 18, Marcia was destined for the Royal Ballet School.

Success has not been limited to this country: she is now published in sixteen other countries - with contracts for books to be published in two others - and has been in the bestseller lists of both Germany and Greece.

And how exactly does a writer living in the Westcountry spend her day?

Marcia says: "When I am actually writing (which is for about six months each year), I become very businesslike. I am usually in my study by 9.30 and I start by checking through what was written yesterday: often that means a bit of polishing and adding in a few sentences. Then I settle down to the day’s writing—anything from one to two thousand words—but I have to take a break every hour and a half or thereabouts because I suffer from RSI which makes life difficult."

"Normally I will have finished writing by lunchtime (which we have late, about 2.30) and the rest of the day is spent on brooding about what I shall be working on tomorrow."

So how should her books be described? Marcia is a born storyteller and her books are beautifully written which makes them easy to read. Even so, they will challenge the thoughtful as they deal with the eternal problems that face everyone and often call for great strength of character if they are to be overcome.