Martina Cole
Photo Credit: Bill Waters
Martina Cole is the acknowledged queen of crime drama with more than twenty novels to her name, of which over a dozen have been No.1 bestsellers. Several of Martina's novels have been adapted for the screen, including The Take and The Runaway which were shown on Sky 1 to remarkable reviews. In addition, Two Women and The Graft have been adapted for the stage.
Her books have sold thirteen million copies. In 2011 Martina surpassed the £50 million sales mark since records began and was the first British female novelist for adult audiences to achieve this. She has spent more weeks in the No. 1 slot on the original fiction bestseller list than any other adult novelist. Her hard-hitting, uncompromising and haunting writing is in a genre all its own.
Martina is an ambassador for The Reading Agency's Reading Ahead programme. Find out more about Martina at readingahead.org.uk.
What do you love about reading?
"I love losing myself in other people's lives, it relaxes me."
Why have chosen to be an ambassador for Reading Ahead?
"I think reading is an incredibly important tool that everybody should have. The wonderful thing about Reading Ahead is that people who don't normally read, or who think that reading isn't their bag, are encouraged to pick up a book. When you read a book you have to picture it all in your own mind. No one tells you what you're seeing or what you should be feeling. That's the secret of reading - it's such a personal thing."
Watch Martina talk about about her favourite books, how she encourages non-readers to pick up a book and why she became an ambassador for us:
