Bristol hospital manager publishes novel . . . years after dropping out of English class

A hospital manager has become a published author years after she dropped out of her A-level English class.

Caroline Wallis wrote her adventure novel Hotspots around her work as an outpatients manager at the Spire Hospital on the Downs. She came up with the idea for her book, aimed at 13 to 17-year-olds, three years ago after reading an article about wi-fi.

Mrs Wallis, 49, would come up with plot ideas while walking to work from her Westbury-on-Trym home and then type them on her laptop whenever she had free time.

The mother of two got her son Tim and daughter Ellie to read drafts of the book, along with her nephews.

She published the book herself through Trym Publishing, which meant she had to do the editing herself. Hotspots is set in Bristol, although locations are not named, but Mrs Wallis is sure that Bristolians will recognise them.

She said: "I don't name a lot of Bristol places but if you know them you will know where they are.

"A lot is based in the Harbourside."

The book focuses on the character Tom, who has something wrong with him. When he and a professor at the neurological institute find out what the problem is, people are keen to get hold of him, which leads to a journey of discovery about himself and his father who had walked out 11 years before.

Mrs Wallis said: "I've always written stories and had already written one book, which has not been published, set in the 60s and 70s. I work shifts so I had to write whenever I could. I loved writing the story but to go over it again and check for continuity and everything else, that was time consuming."

At school she was always interested in stories but was not so good at spelling. Mrs Wallis said: "I never really got far with English at school. I did English at A-level but when I did a critique of a poem the teacher said it wasn't what it was about, so I gave up."

Mrs Wallis is now writing a sequel to Hotspots. Proceeds from the book are going to the Great Western Air Ambulance. About £1 a book is going to the charity. Hotspots is available from Durdham Down Bookshop, the Trym Publishing website at www.trympublishing.co.uk and other online book stores.