by Alan Quick

A FORMER Crediton schoolgirl, now married and living in Nottingham, has scored a major publishing deal with a wartime drama she wrote whilst her soldier husband was away on active service with the British Army.

Clare Harvey’s debut novel, “The Gunner Girl” is due out in paperback on February 25 (the hardback is already available on Amazon and in libraries), and she has a two-book deal with international publishers Simon and Schuster.

Barnstaple-born Clare spent her teenage years at Queen Elizabeth’s School in Crediton, both as a boarder and a day pupil, and says her schooldays there had an influence on her success as an author.

“I can still remember Miss Noble, who was my form tutor, English teacher and was also a boarding matron,” says Clare. “I was a bit of a cheeky one, and I think she called me a ‘little madam’ in one school report, but she was obviously a good teacher, giving me the foundation in English language skills to make it to publication – albeit 30-odd years later!”

Clare began writing the novel whilst her husband was on a tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2012. “Writing the book helped stop me worrying about him,” says the mum-of-three. “I’d get back from dropping the kids off at school, sweep the breakfast dishes to one side, and just write. I’d be so immersed in my characters I wouldn’t be thinking about suicide bombs in Kabul or attacks on Camp Bastion.”

Her mother-in-law’s time on the anti-aircraft guns in the Second World War inspired “The Gunner Girl”, which traces the lives of three girl soldiers in wartime London, which won the prestigious Exeter Novel Prize last year.

“It has been such an exciting journey,” says Clare. “This book began in part as a way of coping with an absent husband and the stresses of army life – and now it’s about to be published in paperback and is already available in libraries all over the world.”

She has just finished writing a spin-off, which is published in the autumn. Clare now lives in Nottingham with her three children, but with friends and family in the South West, still thinks of Devon as home.

“The Gunner Girl” (Simon and Schuster) is published in paperback on February 25, and is already available in hardback, on Kindle and stocked in libraries nationwide.