Former Sarratt author claims clairvoyant led her to write

The author, who is originally from Sarratt, started her career as the London correspondent for a German music magazine. She says: "I was interviewing all the boy bands, everybody from Michael Jackson to Meat Loaf. But when I was 35 I found myself stuck in a rut and it wasn’t fulfilling me at all – I found it all quite superficial.

"So a friend of mine said I’ll pay for you to go and see a psychic, who said I was going to write novels and they’ll be funny. I said to them, look ‘I have never written fiction and I am certainly not funny’.

"But then weirdly within nine months I was the in-house comedy writer for Comic Relief - then I started to think, maybe there is something to what she said, because it’s unusual for someone to suddenly become a comedy writer. Then about two years after seeing her I had this idea for the novel, which came from a true life story."

While working for Comic Relief, Hattie met a woman, who told her about her near-death experience. She said to her that during the time she was in a coma, she saw a 3D film of her life, which was very immersive, very holographic and she could feel the emotions of what she had felt at the time, including some events in her life that she had forgotten about. And at the end of this film, despite being in a coma, she remembered thinking 'it's not enough, I need more time' and so she came out of the coma.

Hattie explains that after hearing this she thought 'what if we could see a film of our life before we die, would we like it?' and Cinema Lumière was born.

Set between the bustling streets of Portobello, London and Paris, the story follows Hannah Bailey, who's stuck in a dead-end job and has resigned herself to never falling in love - until she stumbles across a tiny cinema with just one seat.

But this is no ordinary cinema. Cinema Lumière shows the viewer an edited film of their life, and French owner, Victor, is interested in coaxing Hannah into that one seat. But why?

Film buffs will know the title of the book eludes to the Lumière brothers - pioneers of cinema - who would pop up in cities with their short moving pictures that stunned the audience. In fact the brothers feature in the book to give it historical perspective and depth. The book speaks with authority on the subject and it comes as no surprise to learn that Hattie is a huge fan of pop-up cinemas and has run a grassroots cinema herself.

Hattie, who lived in Berlin for seven years, says: "I've been mad about films since forever. When I was in Berlin, during the winter it was freezing and to save money me and my friend used to go to the cinema, which was just down the road. Over there you could buy tickets to see a series of films and we would take our duvets with us - as you could do that - and just sit and watch films all day to keep warm. They showed a lot of European art house cinema, which I love.

"Also me and a very good friend of mine ran a pop-up cinema under the Westway in Portobello, for six years, which had about 80 seats that we bought from ebay and a huge screen. We screened a lot of European films like Cinema Paradiso, In the Mood for Love, Amelie, and Wings of Desire. I'd go on BBC radio often too to talk about quirky cinemas - so it all fitted in well with the book."

When putting the finishing touches to her debut novel, Hattie, who used to work at Clements, her family's department store in Watford High Street during her school holidays, explains that she had to learn a lot about marketing, as one of the downsides of self-publishing is you don't have the money like the major publishers to do lavish book launches. This will be one of the issues she'll be talking about at the Watford Big Word Fest - how to self-publish, as well as her novel.

Hattie Holden Edmonds will be at Cassio Lodge, Oddfellows Halls on March 21, 7.30pm. Details: watford.gov.uk/events