Penny Vincenzi: Let's get the party started

Penny Vincenzi's first novel following her move from Orion to Headline is about three 30-something women and the 15-year-old girl, Kate, whom one of them abandoned at birth. Martha is a corporate lawyer and a prospective MP for a new centrist political party, the Centre Forward party; Clio, a doctor, is married to a surgeon, who expects her to abandon her career in favour of supporting him in his; and Jocasta is a tabloid journalist. Developments in the lives of all three bring them into Kate's orbit; a revelation is inevitable.

"All my books are strong on secrets, on which the reader is gradually let in. And they're all about families. But in Sheer Abandon the three women are from different families, so there's a broader canvas; and this book will appeal to a younger audience than some of my others. I think that it will introduce a new readership to my work, and I'm excited about that.

"I didn't set out deliberately to write a younger book. I don't believe you can write in that way. It's a question that's come up with all my novels, from Old Sins on: 'Do you try to follow a formula?' But if you do that, your writing becomes self-conscious, and readers will be aware of it.

"I'm pleased with myself for having invented a political party. I know a bit about it because I was involved with the SDP locally in the 1980s, and wrote the newsletter. Although of course the SDP failed in the end, it was a very exciting time.

"A lot of the politicians I spoke to said what a good idea the Centre Forward party was. I'd vote for it. I was a bit worried when I read the proof about all the political opinions in the book; but the party had to have views if it was going to be convincing as a creation, so I gave it mine.

"I wasn't sure when I started writing the book which one of the three women was going to be the mother. That's what happens with all my books: I start with a 'What if?', and set off from there. Then I had to give a lot of thought to the timing of the revelation: if it's too soon, you have the problem of where to go then; but you can't leave it for too long, because there's a point beyond which you can't go on teasing people.

"The first thing that Rosie [de Courcy, Vincenzi's editor] taught me is that every story has to have a third act--a point in the drama after which nothing can be the same. The third act here is when Kate finds out who her mother is.

"Rosie bought Old Sins for Century, so she and I are on our third publishing company together. She's the reason I moved to Headline. It was difficult to leave Orion--I was with them for a long time, they were very good to me, and I was very happy there. But you can't take the editor out of that equation.

"Rosie has taught me everything I know. I couldn't do a book without her."

Penny Vincenzi Sheer Abandon (Headline, 14th March, h/b, £17.99, 0755320816)