BUSY mum-of-two Alison Pindar wrote her first novel by working on the story every night once her children were in bed.

Now Stop the Clock has a mainstream publisher, Transworld, and Mrs Pindar, who has written under her maiden name Alison Mercer, has a two-book deal.

And the 39-year-old, left, graduate of University College, Oxford, has a ready-made market for the novel – other mums impressed that she managed to find the time to write around her family and work commitments.

Mrs Pindar, of Lammas Close, Abingdon, said she would not have been able to write the novel, a tale of three friends from journalism college who follow their dreams, without the support of her husband, the poet Ian Pindar.

He stepped in to look after son Tom, five, and daughter Izzy, eight, who attend St Nicolas School in Abingdon, when Ms Mercer was writing.

Mrs Pindar, who works part-time at a publishing company in Wallingford, said: “The novel was written every night between 9pm and midnight – I didn’t go out or watch much TV.”