Every Sunday, dailywaffle.co.uk will bring you a quick 60 second interview with a different member of our writing team. This week Leanne (@leannshka), our historian and Russian enthusiast, takes her turn at the table.
What / Who inspired you to write?
Books. Lots and lots of books. I was always completely obsessed with reading; I knew my alphabet backwards by the time I was 2 and a half, I was reading 200 page books by the time I was four, and I owned over 1000 books by the time I was nine. I would tell anyone who would listen that I was going to write my own books when I was a grown up (still the ultimate aim), and so I suppose it’s just stuck with me since then!
What topics do you most enjoy writing about and why?
My absolute favourite thing to write about is history. It was my favourite subject at school, and I went on to do a Joint Honours degree in History and Literature. If you were to combine all the essays, my dissertation etc in my final year of uni, I had to write approximately 30,000 words altogether, and I can honestly say it was one of the best years of my life! In fact, my own personal idea of heaven on earth would involve me researching and writing about history for at least eight hours every day *drifts into dreamland*
Other than history, I love writing about travelling (the only thing, family aside, that I care about as much as history) and films, but honestly…I’m generally happy as long as I’m writing. The topic doesn’t really matter.
Name 3 people who inspire you
I’m going to cheat a little bit, and include my husband and my daughter as one. My family are the main inspiration behind everything I do, because I want to be able to make them proud, as well as being (hopefully) a good role model for my daughter. Secondly, I have to go with one of my closest friends, Andrea. She has an MA and is currently working towards a PhD in Translation Studies, while also working part time, and somehow she also finds time to be an incredible artist, an incredible writer (she is working on a four-part novel series of insane scope), and just an all-round brilliant person. Oh, AND she knows at least three languages (she’s Hungarian, yet her English is better than mine). Third is a bit more difficult. Not because I can’t think of anyone, but just because I have so many idols! I’m going to pick one of them at random, simply because she’s the one I got to see most recently, and that is Jodeyne Higgins. She began her role as a professional skater on Dancing on Ice at around the same time I got particularly ill last year, and I can honestly say she was one of the inspirations behind my recovery. She is the embodiment of the statement ‘positive mental attitude’, and her enthusiasm and general loveliness inspired me to get through many a bad day.
Give me one fact about yourself
I spent my 26th birthday in Moscow, seeing Lenin’s dead body and visiting the grave of Stalin’s second wife.
What is the most blatant lie you have ever told?
I told a lot of lies when I was a teenager (I clearly felt like my life was too boring), but the worst had to be the time I told a penpal that I regularly hung round at the Hollyoaks set (I live 200 miles away), and had become such good friends with the castmates that the likes of Gary Lucy used to buy me lunch every day. I honestly don’t know what I was thinking…I didn’t even like Hollyoaks that much!
