Oxfordshire author Amanda Jennings tells Jaine Blackman about success and that 'pesky' second novel

Amanda Jennings is glad that her family is proud and “incredibly supportive” of her writing... but she’d rather they didn’t read some of it.

As the Oxfordshire mum-of three prepares for the launch of her second novel – The Judas Scar – she says: “The girls haven’t read either book.

“Neither is age appropriate for the younger two; the themes are just too grown up for an eight or 12-year-old.

“Though my eldest [at 16] is old enough she has resisted reading it.

“I think she’s aware of the content and is reluctant to come face to face with what goes on in the dark reaches of her mum’s mind. I’d hate any of them to read the sex scene – it’s bad enough knowing my parents will read it!”

But that is just a small part of the novel, a psychological thriller set partly in Oxfordshire.

“It’s a story about betrayal and bullying and the long-lasting impact that trauma in childhood can have on the rest of someone’s life,” says Cambridge graduate Amanda, who lives with husband Chris, 41, and their daughters in Binfield Heath, near Henley.

After the success of her first book Sworn Secret – which reached number four in the UK Amazon chart, was in WHSmith Travel’s Top Ten Bestseller list and the top 100 in the US kindle chart – she found following it up a challenge.

“This book was tricky to write; for over a year I referred to it as Pesky Book Two.

“I found the change from writing relatively anonymously to writing as a published author unsettling.

“Promotion of Sworn Secret took up timeand headspace as well, there were reviews to read, rankings to fret over. It was a very different process to writing quietly while my babies napped with no deadlines or expectation.”

Amanda, 41, wrote her unpublished first and second novels when her children were small. “Wherever we were and whenever they were asleep, I would write, whether it was in Sainsbury’s car park or on the side of a road. I snatched every spare second. And my husband has been amazing,” she says. “He would take the girls away for the weekend so I could write.”

She says that her first novel was so bad she wouldn’t let anyone read it but her second was good enough to gain her an agent and her third attempt Sworn Secret had the publishers chasing her.

Inspiration for The Judas Scar came after her husband was contacted by police investigating allegations of abuse at a school he had attended as a boy.

“Thankfully my husband wasn’t one of those physically abused but the violent and oppressive atmosphere of the school stayed with him for many years,” says Amanda.

But she is keen to point out: “His schooling was nothing like the school in the book. Everything in the book is imagined.

“The inspiration I got from my husband’s experience was purely from the emotions that went with dredging up memories of the oppressive atmosphere and dark undertones of the school. It was merely the emotions that were triggered by the phone call that got me thinking around the subject of trauma in childhood and how this is carried through into adulthood.”

And her friends needn’t worry too much about appearing in print.

“I don’t put anyone consciously into my characters, but I think it would be unrealistic to say that characteristics I notice in people don’t end up being incorporated into people in my books,” says Amanda.

“You develop characters based on learned knowledge and so there will always be echoes of those I’ve met but I wouldn’t be able to accurately say so-and-so is based on that friend, or whatshisname is my husband in a different guise.”

Which is probably just as well considering that sex scene...

The Judas Scar was published yesterday and costs £8.99 on Amazon amandajennings.co.uk