I know Essex like the back of my hand (From Echo)

I know Essex like the back of my hand

9:40pm Wednesday 8th July 2009 in

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WITHOUT actually committing a gruesome, cold- blooded murder to defend your illegal empire, you’d be hard pushed to come as close to experiencing the seedy criminal underworld as you will by reading a Martina Cole novel.

“My books are the most stolen books from shops and the most requested in prisons,” claims the author.

“I don’t know what that says, but they are very realistic books. Because I set them in such realistic locations people think they must be true.”

Largely based around the Essex and London East End border, where Martina grew up, her 15 novels appear as genuine as they are gripping.

The dark tales of gangland killings, drug dealings, prostitution and violence have sold more than eight million copies worldwide since she began writing in 1992.

So you’d probably expect such a successful writer to have based at least some of her stories on real life experiences. Not entirely the case according to Martina.

“You write about what you know,” she states, matter-of-factly, “and I know Essex like the back of my hand.

“It was a huge influence on me and I drew on my experiences of what I heard while I was there.

“But all the characters are completely made up, except sometimes I base them on people I loosely know.

“The stories are a mix of experience and imagination, but mostly imagination.”

Instead then, of any real exposure to the murky world of illicit behaviour that characterise her books, Martina’s inspiration for her novels came from within.

“I write for me and I have always written for me,” says the 50-year-old.

“When I wrote my first book it was something to do to keep me entertained, but it also came from my desire to be an author.

“At that time you could only get books about women sleeping their way to the top, and I wanted something different.

“I wrote Dangerous Lady and it worked for me.” That novel tells the story of Maura Ryan, a plucky 17-year-old who takes on the hard men of London’s gangster scene, and the presence of this strong female protagonist is a common thread in many of Martina’s books.

She admits this is in part due to the tough times she experienced in her youth.

Born and raised in Aveley, she was a teenager when she fell pregnant with her son Chris, and at 20 both her parents passed away.

“I had to be strong,” she says. “You didn’t have a lot of choice, but to get on with it.

“That’s what you had to do then, and I still do it now.

“I had three jobs – I used to work all day in a shop, I used to work overnight putting leaflets in magazines, and I even plucked turkeys at Christmas for extra money. What you do in life when you are young shapes you and we all had a good work ethic in my family.”

But the other reason for including these female types comes back to entertainment value.

“You can’t have lots of drippy characters in a book,” she says.

“You have to have strong characters otherwise who would read it.”

Her 12th book, the Take, which was recently adapted into a Sky 1 drama, is no exception.

It tells the gritty story of East End family, the Jacksons, and their rapid rise up the criminal ladder during the Eighties and Nineties.

But bitterness and jealously within the family, which includes the alcoholic wife Jackie played by Leigh actress Kierston Wareing, threatens to tear them apart.

“It’s not for the faint-hearted, but my books never are,” points out Martina.

“It’s just a very powerful story and one of my favourites.

“The Eighties was a great decade for criminals and there was a very entrepreneurial feel.

“It was Thatcher’s Britain and the ‘make as much money as you can’ mentality.

“The music was terrible, but it was a great era for everything else.”

And Martina believes revisiting the decade is fitting for the current times.

“I think there is a relevance to now, especially with the greed,” she identifies.

“There were a lot of big businesses ripping people off and I think those values have stayed. For a lot of people, it’s an era they can remember clearly.”

Despite recently moving to Kent to be closer to her grandson, the author, who lived in Benfleet for 18 years, still considers herself an Essex girl.

But she admits people’s perception of that doesn’t sit easily with her.

“The stereotype of the Essex girl annoys me,” she states. “I think it evolved in the Eighties.

“The only person I saw in a denim skirt was Lady Diana, maybe she was a closet Essex girl.

“I think people always go for stereotypes, but I don’t think it still exists.

“Women from Essex are successful and Essex has always had that entrepreneurial side to it.”

Martina obviously possesses an entrepreneurial side herself, and has worked extremely hard to get to where she is today.

So why does she believe her often bleak stories have been such a hit, shifting millions of copies and topping best sellers’ lists?

“Crime is our biggest fear, but it seems to be people’s number one form of entertainment,” she says.

“I think my books give an insight into the underclass and people like that gritty realism of relationships and betrayal.

“I say the things no one else will – the good and the bad. It makes you the person you are, just like the characters in my books.”

l The Take is now available to own on ITV DVD.