Carole Hailey completed the six-month Guardian/UEA novel-writing course with Bernardine Evaristo, who imbued Carole with such a love for writing fiction that she abandoned her career in law to study first an MA, then a PhD in Creative Writing. Carole’s debut novel, The Silence Project, was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Christopher Bland Prize, and was a BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick, a Waterstones Welsh Book of the Month and an Independent Booksellers Book of the Month. She lives in Wales with her husband and two dogs.