A NORTHUMBERLAND mum who went to a friend’s writing class is getting her first novel published on Christmas Eve.

Kate Spencer, 36, has penned the book in the space of three months after attending a group run in her home town by Kath Hopkins.

The novel, Twelve Lessons, will appear on e-books on December 24 with hopes of a mainstream print run to follow.

Kate, of Lime Grove, Prudhoe, is delighted at the success of the writing class and said: “I’ve always felt I would write something one day but this book came from nowhere.

“Kath wanted to do a writing group and see if people could find creative voices.

“I had already started my book but it wasn’t flowing as fast as it could have been and therefore it was a lovely little coincidence that Kath started her classes at just the right time. As the classes progressed I got more and more creative, and I was then able to finish the novel in three months.

“It has been a real round-the-kitchen-table situation and a real win-win.”

Twelve Lessons – “it’s a little bit Bridget Jones-ey”, says Kate – features a character called Stephanie Slater who gets arrested for drink-driving on Christmas Eve.

She consults a psychic who gives her 12 lessons, one a month for a year, to get her back on the right track.

“It’s a parable in some ways,” says Kate, mother of an eight-year-old girl.

“I’d had the idea bubbling in me for some time but it was only when I went to Kath’s classes that the novel took shape properly. I’ve had a little pilot group of other mums who have read the book and they’ve come back to me in tears saying, ‘It’s astonishing’.

“It’s a story I want to help and inspire people – it’s funny and also quite meaningful.

“I got a publisher in the Isle of Wight and though it will be for e-readers initially, it might go further when we go to the London Book Fair with it in April.”

Other mums have read the book and they’ve come back to me in tears saying, ‘It’s astonishing’