In October, Kate Griffin, fought off hundreds of talented would-be writers to win Stylist’s search for a crime fiction star competition with Faber and Faber. Six months and 85,000 words later, her absorbing Victorian tale Kitty Peck And The Music Hall Murders is set for release in July (and even we don’t know how it ends).

What has the writing process been like?

When I won Stylist’s competition in October, I’d written 6,000 words. Hannah Griffiths, my publisher at Faber, asked me to go away and write as much as I could by Christmas so I hammered out 45,000 words. I’ve just finished the second half of the book and now I’m working on Hannah’s edits. The book even has a cover now which makes it all the more real.

Do you have to pinch yourself to believe you’re finally going to be a published author?

Yes! When I go to meetings at Faber and Faber I look up at pictures of TS Eliot and WH Auden and think: ‘Oh dear, am I an imposter?’ Hopefully the answer is no.

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