Biog

Debi Alper I was born into a working class Jewish family (yes, we do exist!) in north London and became active in radical politics in the 70s.

In 1982 I went to Grenada and lived there on and off for the following four years, experiencing the revolution, the coup and subsequent US invasion and aftermath. (See Kat Photo for details of relevant photographic exhibitions.)

On my return to London, I worked as a finance officer for Jewish Women in London (an oral history project) and Women Focusing (a national women’s photography organisation) and took a diploma in Photojournalism at London College of Printing. Over the years, I also had jobs as a shop assistant, farm labourer, life model and wig maker - amongst other things...

After graduating from LCP, three of us set up Out Take – a photography collective working for organisations in the not-for-profit sector. (See Kat Photo).

I moved into the Shangri-La Housing Co-op in Peckham in 1989, providing the setting for my subsequent novels.

My mother died in 1991 and six months later I met Greg. (See Kat Photo for details of Greg’s career.) When I was seven months pregnant with our first child, the council repossessed the co-op properties. At the point when pregnant women are supposed to be nest building, we were made homeless. Three weeks after Joe was born in May 1995, we were re-housed on an estate in East Dulwich, where Jacob was born in January 1998.

After Jacob’s birth I worked three days a week as a finance officer for the London Advice Services Alliance, while Greg did the bulk of the childcare. We also ran a wedding photography business (see Kat Photo) as well as parenting two young and very active sons. I joined the East Dulwich Writers’ Group although I had no previous experience of writing fiction apart from an abortive attempt to crack the women’s magazine short story market several years earlier. (Each story would start sweet enough but then gradually turned dark and twisted! Clearly my inner voice calling out ...) I wrote Nirvana Bites in the evenings in long hand lying on the settee and then typed it up in chunks using borrowed laptops.

Eighteen months later, I had my first book deal!

Now read on …