In the countdown to the Examiner Literary Luncheon at the Galpharm Stadium on October 4 we are profiling each of our guest speakers. Today EMMA DAVISON talks to Netherthong author Annabel Pitcher who has sold her debut novel worldwide.

WHEN a film on the atrocities of 9/11 sparked the idea for a book, Annabel Pitcher never imagined that it would become a worldwide success story.

But the notebooks on which she had scribbled ideas during travels, formed the basis of a children’s novel that transformed Annabel from teacher to acclaimed new writing talent in a matter of months.

In the months since her debut novel, My Sister Lives On The Mantelpiece, was released, Annabel has travelled the world on promotional tours, had her book nominated for the Guardian children’s fiction prize – and even enlisted the services of a Time Lord!

It’s quite an accomplishment for a country girl who grew up in Netherthong and never expected to see her books gracing Europe’s biggest Waterstones.

Annabel, who recently moved back to the area after living in London, always aspired to be a writer and credits her Holme Valley upbringing for fuelling her creativity as a youngster.

“My mum was an English teacher and I did a lot of creative writing when I was younger,’’ she said.

“In my home life I was quite childish. I loved creating and putting on plays and dressing up.

“I solved a lot of crime with my brother. If we heard there had been a crime in the village, like a burglary, we would go around houses and ask people for interviews.

“I really had a strong sense that I didn’t want to grow up.

“I wanted to be all sorts of things. I wanted a play for Manchester United, be an actress – I even wanted to be a spy!”

This creative streak stuck with Annabel throughout her teenage years and after attending Greenhead College she went on to study English Literature at Oxford.

She poured over the Harry Potter books when she should have been reading Dickens, but it wasn’t until she was in her early 20s that she believed becoming a writer was possible.

“I thought it would be amazing to do it myself, but I knew the odds were stacked against me,’’ she said.

“Then there was a point when I was in a bookshop in Ambleside browsing in the children’s section.

“I saw all these books on the shelf and thought people do do this as a career. It was then that I thought I’d take it more seriously.”

The idea for her debut came to Annabel when she spent a year travelling the world with her husband.

While they were in Ecuador they watched a film about the September 11 attacks, which got her thinking about the families left behind after such a tragedy.

Annabel spent the next 10 months writing into notebooks as she travelled and had a novel by the time she came home.

She was still teaching at Wakefield Girls High School when she found out that her book was to be published.

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece is written through the voice of a child and examines how an act of terrorism can tear a family apart.

It sparked an auction war between publishers in the UK and US and its rights have now been sold to 15 countries.

However, Annabel insists she had no idea that her novel would be such a hit.