Terry Bond

Terry Bond was born in Bristol in 1960 and holds a degree in German from the University of Wales (Cardiff). Following numerous false-start careers in the Civil Service, accountancy, vegetarian catering and translation, she now teaches English as a Foreign Language in central France, where she shares a (small) smallholding with her husband, five cats, two goats and a collection of chickens.

Terry began writing in 2007; Lip Service is her third novel, but the first to be published.

'I write about issues which are important to me,' she says. 'My first novel was about Islam and the way we have grown suspicious of Muslims since 9/11, my second (a sequel to the first) about the way we treat immigrants, despite the many ways in which they have enriched our country, and my fourth (unfinished) about animal rights. But the REAL bee in my bonnet is human rights. Hence Lip Service.'

So is Terry's writing political?

'It is - because I am - but not in a party political way. And I try not to be 'in your face'. But yes, all my books have messages - I'm not motivated to write anything which I don't see as important. That said, I hope that my books will interest the reader by dint of their plots. After all, we all like to read a good page-turner, don't we?'

Terry is giving a donation to Amnesty International for every copy of Lip Service sold.