Not since Angela Carter’s Nights At The Circus have I spent such an enjoyable time in the company of an acrobat.

Kate Griffin (Catherine Cain) former columnist on our sister paper Watford Observer has penned the thrilling tale of teenage sleuth Kitty Peck whose nightly aerial antics are the toast of London’s Victorian music halls. Blackmailed into service by her ominous employer Lady Ginger, Kitty’s high wire performance is just a cover for her to trap the sadistic serial killer who is preying on Ginger’s girls.

With the ink barely dry on the book, the St Albans writer is already in talks with a prestigious production company about adapting the story for television.

So how is the glamorous life as a published author going?

“I’ve been sitting cross-legged on the floor stuffing envelopes,“ comes Kate’s jocular reply.

She works as a press officer for the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, a post she has held for the past ten years. Prior to this she worked for Hertsmere Council after a seven-year stint in the Watford Observer’s editorial department. She started as a columnist in 2004 but stopped it earlier this year to concentrate on her creative writing.

“I mostly avoided doing court reports,“ says Kate of her time at the Observer. “I didn’t like doing news so my trade off for going to council meetings was writing a couple of reviews a week. I really enjoyed seeing amateur shows when the group very bravely took on interesting plays.“

Did Kate ever ruffle any feathers?

“There was one production of The Importance of Being Earnest where several people left during the interval and I wrote something along the lines of ’To lose one member of your audience may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose more looks like carelessness’, I got a few letters about that.“

Kate won a competition in Stylist magazine to have her Kitty Peck novel published by Faber and Faber and concurrently also landed another publishing deal through the Times/Chicken House competition. Her children’s book, The Jade Boy, is about the Great Fire of London.

Kate’s recent output would suggest she’s on a roll but apparently she didn’t set out to be a writer, though she admits her work has a “strong theatrical streak“.

“I love Hammer horror films as they’re lush and beautifully lit and I have a strong visual side so I could imagine each scene and room in detail and even act out the characters in my head.

“In my secret other life I would have loved to have been an actress,“ she tells me.

In her youth, as a member of the Croxley Wood Players, she often played opposite Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind).

“I was Cecily to his Algernon and Hermia to his Lysander. He was brilliant and everyone was in love with him,“ Kate recalls. “I remember all the fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream were jealous as we had so many scenes. Back then on those chilly evenings in the hall we didn’t know he was going to be a Hollywood star, though I think really, deep down I did.“

So who would she want to play Kitty on screen?

“Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones with blonde hair, she’s bold and I think she’d really go for it.

“Kitty is pragmatic. She’s quite brainy and physically tough as well and she thinks things through a bit. She’s not sentimental and is quite good at closing things off if she finds them a bit difficult to deal with. She is also an eternal optimist, but with no good reason.“ F

or other key roles we discuss Tilda Swinton, Daniel Radcliffe, Tom Hiddleston and Philip Glenister.

“Well I may as well aim high,“ says Kate.

Kate has already been commissioned to write two more books in the series, the first of which will see Kitty take flight to Paris and Kate’s career soar too, no doubt.

So what’s next?

“I’ll be celebrating my 50th birthday this week then it’s back into the basement to start typing like a dervish.“