Jane Green: Chick-lit books reflected my life

Chick-lit author Jane Green used her London lifestyle and Nick Hornby's High Fidelity as inspiration when she started writing about strong, independent women.

And her real-life experiences continue to shape her work as she promotes her 12th book, The Love Verb, in the UK.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, the writer said that while she was living in the capital in her early 20s, her love life was disastrous and she suffered from constant rejection.

When she came across Hornby's novel about adult relationships from a male perspective, she thought she could write a female-friendly equivalent and it wasn't long before she scooped a six-figure book deal with her debut novel Straight Talking.

'There was a real audience for strong female characters with real lives and real anxieties told with real humour - the obsession with the glamour-obsessed bonkbuster suddenly felt very dated,' Green told the newspaper.

She added: 'We were writing about ordinary, flawed women who had jobs and worried about their weight and wanted to meet Mr Right.'

She claims her writing has continued to mature, having moved away from standard chick-lit to deal with the issues of cancer and loss.

The Love Verb, which is based on her personal experience of losing a friend to the disease after an unexpected relapse, went on sale on Thursday June 10th.