I was born at an early age...
I grew up in South East London, left school at 16 and married at 18. At the age of 30 I took my two children, left my unhappy life and started again, reinventing myself with an education and a new surname, which I chose by drawing up a shortlist from the telephone directory and sending off for brochures so I’d receive mail in those names. I settled on Elliot; Susan Elliot sounded like ‘me’. Soon after changing my name, I met Mr Right, or in this case, Mr Wright. Within three weeks, we decided to marry (although it took a couple of years to get round to it). We became the Elliot-Wrights, but Ive now decided to drop the hyphen. Not sure why, but it just feels right.
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I’ve worked as: a civil servant, cleaner, barmaid, washer-up, market researcher, cake decorator, FE English tutor, chef, freelance journalist, features editor, non-fiction author and creative writing tutor. I began writing professionally in 1997 when I started to have features accepted for publication in mainstream consumer magazines. In 1999 I took an intensive post-grad course in Periodical Journalism at the London College of Printing; I then became Associate Features Editor at Prima Baby magazine before going freelance in 2002. I’ve since published hundreds of features in magazines and newspapers including Bella, Best, Prima, Prima Baby, She, Real, Practical Parenting and many others. I’ve also written several non-fiction books.
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But my first love was always fiction, and when I was offered a place on the prestigious MA in Writing at Sheffield Hallam University, my husband and I upped sticks from London and moved to Sheffield. It was on the Hallam MA that my first novel, The Things We Never Said, was born.

Until very recently, I was still doing some occasional cheffing for a local catering company, but having been plagued for over a year by RSI in both hands and arms, Ive now had to give that up, and I miss it terribly. The majority of my time now is spent writing, or teaching creative writing, which I do at Sheffield Hallam, in the local community, and for Open College of the Arts. I’m hugely enthusiastic about teaching. I love helping new writers to expand and develop, and of course I continue to learn while teaching.

When I’m not writing or teaching, I might be walking the dog in the Peak District, which is practically on our doorstep, socialising in Sheffield or London, or reading - Stephen King reads around 80 books a year; my ambition is to do 50, but last year I only got to 38.