Beyond the Book

Carrie Kabak assures us that Cover The Butter is not autobiographical.  However, it would seem that she has much in common with her protagonist.  Like Kate, she was discouraged from following her artistic talent and desires and instead was directed firmly towards a "real job".  She says, "At eighteen, it was time to line up for career advice at school. The Head Teacher studied our exam results. She pointed to each girl, teacher, bank, nurse, teacher, bank, nurse. I was labelled 'teacher' and encouraged to train for a real job.... So I went to Cardiff University to train as a French, English and Art teacher. At college, an English professor pulled me to one side. Why was I teaching, he asked. Why wasn't I writing? Because it's not a proper job, I explained. Then make it one, he said." 

Instead, she got married, taught, designed, and raised four children - then, six years ago, she moved from the UK to the USA and started to illustrate children's books, but it took another four years for her to finally take the plunge and start writing her first book, Cover The Butter.  She is now at work on Tarts and Sinners, an interwoven tale set in England told from three different  viewpoints: Annie Ruddock, a 58 year-old vicar's wife in love with a cross-dressing bell ringer, 46-year-old Jane Frobisher who's obsessed with chickens (and whose husband is having an affair with a Camilla Parker-Bowles look-alike), and Fiona Wiggins, aged 23, who's obsessed with the Fabulous Fifties.

Carrie now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, with her husband and their five sons.

This article was originally published in July 2005, and has been updated for the May 2006 paperback release. Click here to go to this issue.

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