Osborne's family tales are bestsellers (From Knutsford Guardian)

Osborne's family tales are bestsellers

5:00pm Saturday 4th August 2012 in News

AN AUTHOR and wife of an MP has revealed how family secrets inspired her writing.

Frances Osborne, who is married to George Osborne, Tatton MP and Chancellor of the Exchequer, spoke to book lovers at Waterstones, in King Street, as she unveiled her latest novel.

Park Lane is a departure from her first two books, Lilla’s Feast and bestseller The Bolter, which are biographies detailing the fascinating lives of her ancestors.

In Park Lane she has ventured into the world of fiction, although based firmly in its accurate historical setting.

She gave a reading from the novel before taking questions from the audience about different aspects of her work, including how long it takes her to write a book, when she decided to start writing and why and whether she prefers writing fact or fiction.

The mother-of-two, who has also worked as a barrister and banker, wanted to write since she was a child but only decided to pick up a pen once she had children of her own.

Her first book, Lilla’s Feast, centred on her great-grandmother, who spent much of the Second World War in Japanese prison camps and wrote an elaborate cookery book to help her survive behind barbed wire.

Her second book, The Bolter, is about another of her great-grandmothers, Idina Sackville, who scandalised Edwardian high society with her numerous affairs, wild parties and flaunting of convention, and whose life was kept secret from her own family.

Park Lane is a fictional story about a housemaid and the privileged daughter of the house whose lives are changed by both the suffragette movement and the First World War.

Frances said: “This has been a great audience and they asked me lots of interesting questions.

“I really enjoy meeting readers – writing is quite solitary so it’s fun to talk to people at events like this.”