My debut crime thriller, BELIEVE, is out with Penguin Michael Joseph on 19th June and I couldn’t be more excited. I haven’t exactly followed a direct route to this moment, but I don’t regret the meandering path I’ve taken as I’ve learnt something important from each venture along the way.
I began my adult life studying law at Oxford. It was a fascinating degree and I loved it. It was all about ideas and thought experiments – what the law should be, the impact of particular cases, the extent to which individual liberties were and should be curtailed. It suited my argumentative nature and taught me self-reliance. The course was entirely tutorial-based and essentially self-taught. We’d get a reading list and an essay title and then have to produce and be ready to defend a piece by the following week. Writing is similarly a completely self-motivated business. You need that internal discipline and drive, or you’ll never finish a book, and this really laid the foundations for that. My degree also honed my ability to structure my writing, because each week I had to formulate a robust argument that could withstand my tutor’s attempts to tear it apart. Crime and thriller novels are so plot heavy, you need that solid structure, to know exactly how all the strands tie together and how changing one element will impact everything else.
On graduating, I joined a big City law firm as that’s what everyone did and they’re the ones who offer the most money. It might sound basic, but twenty-one-year-olds generally are, and I was no exception. But I knew from the moment I beeped in through those turnstiles that this wasn’t the career for me. There was no discussion of ideas, no debate about what the law should be. It was just business. Very much download and amend this standard form contract and stay here all night if you need to. However, I met some fun people, and learnt work efficiency – we had to account for and bill every 6 minute chunk of the day – and this means that as a writer I can instantly click into writing mode. There’s no gazing out the window, I’m focused, immersed, from the moment I sit at my desk, even if it means I burn out three hours later! I also learnt how to write an accurate lawyer character for BELIEVE – bonus!
I stuck it out at the law firm until I qualified and then I left and did random, ridiculous things for a year as a sort of late-onset teen rebellion. I designed t-shirts that I sewed on my sofa – Jordan (now, Katie Price) actually wore one on the front cover of OK! magazine to celebrate her engagement to Peter Andre – and this taught me the art of the cold sell. That ability to swallow your pride and go and stick your neck out and promote yourself. There are fewer scarier things I’ve ever done than walk into high-end shops unannounced and ask if they’d like to buy my t-shirts. This experience has stood me in good stead now that I’m trying to promote my book. I’ve managed to eradicate my embarrassment reflex and talking to booksellers doesn’t phase me at all.
In my absurd year I also did some modelling. Which might sound glamorous and exciting, but it really wasn’t. I did shows in London, Athens and Chicago but most of it was hanging around, getting really, really bored and then being judged on my looks alone and having them discussed and dissected as if I weren’t even present. It taught me that whatever I did with my life, it had to involve using my brain. And the time I now spend writing in my attic, in an old sweatshirt, conjuring up worlds and characters, is a hundred times more exciting than prancing about on a runway in a lace catsuit ever was.
When that year came to an end, I decided I needed to grow up. I started doing private tutoring and ended up setting up my own agency. I really enjoyed it. It’s such a privilege to be able to work one-on-one with a student and see the exponential progress they can make, that lightbulb moment when it all clicks together for them. However, I also saw just how stressful lots of young people find our examination-based education system and this gave me the idea for my first YA book: The Territory. When my daughter was born, I decided to have a go at writing it. I was taking 6 months’ maternity leave anyway, so while she slept, I wrote. She was a rubbish sleeper, so it took a while, but I loved every moment and was lucky enough to end up with an initial three-book deal.
Writing YA was excellent preparation for writing thrillers. Teens have such limited attention spans, so you have to hook them in quickly and then keep them there with twists, short chapters, and relatable characters. Exactly the same applies to adults.
With six YA books under my belt, I decided I wanted to have a go at screenwriting. My husband and I wrote a sci-fi thriller film together – T.I.M. – about a humanoid A.I. robot that becomes obsessed with its female owner and will do anything it can to take her husband’s place. This was such fun to write, and it was amazing seeing it reach the number one spot on Netflix upon release and then stay in the top ten for three weeks.
It made me realise that I really wanted to write an adult thriller novel next. And the idea for one was starting to dawn on me. I wrote it in a fevered six months and the rest, as they say, is history.
If you get a chance to pick up BELIEVE, I hope you enjoy it reading it at least a tenth of the amount I enjoyed writing it. Thank you!
© 2025 S.M. Govett
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Shots Magazine would like to thank Rowland White, Sriya Varadharajan and Gaby Young of Penguin Random House for introducing our readers to this intriguing writer.
