Claire Calman decided to write a book when she discovered that it mainly involved drinking cups of coffee and looking out of the window. It was some time before a real writer friend pointed out that if she were to select an assortment of words and arrange them in some kind of order, this would speed up the process no end.

Before she got on to daydreaming full time, Claire Calman spent several years in women’s magazines, then in book publishing, editing and writing. She is also a poet and broadcaster and has written and performed her comic verse on radio, including for BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and the comedy series Five Squeezy Pieces.

Love is a Four Letter Word is her first novel. Despite popular demand that she should go back to magazines, she is now working on another book.

Claire Calman cannot decide whether she lives in Kent or London, but then it also takes her nearly an hour to order from any menu with more than three choices on it. Astonishingly, she is unmarried.