Breaking into crime: Amanda Hampson
Amanda Hampson, the author of the best-selling The Tea Ladies and its sequel The Cryptic Clue, fell into crime (writing, not indulging) almost by accident. For twenty years, her work had fallen in the vague area of ‘commercial women’s fiction’ but when her 2021 release got smashed by lockdowns, she decided to change it up and do something quite different. Crime is one of the genres she enjoyed reading and she was keen for the challenge. The crossover to a specific genre instantly made her work more marketable.