A big thank you to Martin Booth, a really good man who was responsible for my first ever pay cheque for writing! He was at the BBC in the early nineties and he took up a script I had sent in. We became good friends and he gave me the confidence I needed to look towards writing as a career. So thank you, Martin, very much.

Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank Lavinia Warner. She made Dangerous Lady into a TV series many years ago. Since then we have become close friends and business partners, going on to make three more series together, along with other projects we have in the pipeline. Thanks, Vin, you have been a real star, and you’re a big part of my family, we all love you dearly. In New York earlier this year, we watched her cousin on Broadway in Venus in Fur. It was one of the highlights of my life; thank you for making me a part of it. I love you, girl.

Now, to my readers – you know who you are! I’ve met so many of you over the years, especially at Pat Fletcher’s stall on Romford Market. Pat gave me my first book signing, and I will always be very grateful to her for that. We have become good friends, and even have houses near each other in Northern Cyprus! So thank you to Pat and Harry Fletcher, and I will see you soon, mate, at Kybele restaurant in Bellapais.

So thank you, once more, to you all, my loyal readers, who have been there since Dangerous Lady, all those years ago. I hope you enjoy The Life. I have been living with the Bailey family for a year now, and I plan to finish Tania’s story off in a few years’ time! So I hope you enjoy her ups and downs – and, believe me, there are a lot of those! I hope to meet many of you at my signings, and I look forward to saying hello to you all.

Take care and God bless,

Martina

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Prologue

1997

I’d grown up in the Life, but I’d never really been a part of it – my mum had made sure of that. It all changed the day she died.