Milly Johnson
Milly Johnson is an international novelist, poet, after-dinner speaker, professional joke writer, script-writer, columnist, cruise correspondent, short-story writer and winner of Come Dine With Me. She lives in Barnsley with her partner, her teenage sons, rescue cats, her dog and Alan the rabbit.
After leaving university Milly trained for a while as an accountant in a building society, a job she truly hated. She supplemented her income by writing copy for greetings cards by Purple Ronnie. Having some of her poems turned into these popular greetings cards spurred her on in her writing and she started to write her first book.
A succession of jobs followed. In offices, mills, banks, sales, exports – she hated them all, but loved the women she worked with and they informed her writing. She worked with older women who showed her that friendships knocked down barriers of age, background, colour, creed. And she worked with younger women who were fabulously nutty. She ‘lived’ in her 20s and 30s – had some great times and horrific times and it coloured and enriched how and what she wrote.
When she was made redundant the week before finding out she was pregnant, Milly wrote off to greetings cards firms and asked them to buy her wares. And they did. She set up a little company called ‘Black Sheep’ and became a professional joke writer which was the best job she had ever had in her life. She was content, happy, working from home with a wonderful set of people to meet up with on work events… but there was just that one missing piece in her jigsaw. It was the silver medal job and there was only one gold – the novel.
Milly fell pregnant at the same time as two of her pals. Their journey through pregnancy was an insightful one and she experienced a lightbulb moment. Realising that extraordinary exists within the parameters of ordinary, everyday life she started to write a story about friendships, Yorkshire, pregnancy and work. And the rest is history.
She got her publishing deal when she was 40. She loves what she does and hopes that this comes through in her work.
As our featured author, Milly has kindly answered a few questions for us about books that have entertained and inspired her and her work as an author.
Read the interview here.
Read more about Milly, her path to becoming a writer and her books on her website or follow her on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook
