Welcome to the Debby Holt Website

My name is Debby Holt and I’m a writer and I can’t tell you what pleasure it gives me to tell you that. Long ago, I was a rather bad history teacher. Less long ago I was a truly rotten supply teacher. Being bad at one’s job is one of the best conditions I know for encouraging a career in writing.

When I was little, I had fantasies about being a writer. On long car journeys I used to bore my five siblings with very, very, VERY long stories. Then I grew up, became a bad history teacher, took time out to have five children and then returned – yes, I know, it’s pathetic – to being a very bad teacher.

In 1994 The Independent published an article I wrote about keeping fit. (I know very little about keeping fit). Duly encouraged, I started writing short stories and although I got loads of rejections I began to get some published.

I was in the car park at Portmeirion when I heard I’d sold my first novel, The Ex-Wife’s Survival Guide. I put down the phone and danced all the way round the car park. I would probably have gone on dancing for ever if I hadn’t noticed a coach full of elderly tourists pointing at me.

Since then, I've had three more novels published, Annie May's Black Book, The Trouble with Marriage and Love Affairs For Grown-ups. My fifth novel, Recipe for Scandal is in all good bookshops from January 2010. And best of all, I'm not teaching any more.

Click on the book images above for more information.