Sharing her five photos with us today is Liz Hedgecock. Liz  grew up in London, England, did an English degree, and then took forever to start writing. After several years working in the National Health Service, some short stories crept into the world. A few even won prizes. The stories started to grow longer — and then the murders began… But more of those later. First, let’s take a look at Liz’s photographs.

Photo 1: New York at sunset

I’ll start with a photo of New York at sunset. As the Empire State building isn’t in it, you can probably guess where I am! I took this on honeymoon with my husband, back in the days before children when we had disposable income. We explored New England and had a wonderful time, ending up in New York – our first visit there. And New York at sunset was incredible. Even taken with my non-digital camera (this is how long ago we’re talking), hopefully this conveys some of how magical it was.

Photo 2: boys on a gate

And now, one reason why we haven’t been to America for a good few years – our boys. They’re a fair bit bigger than this now – one’s at high school and slouches around all over the place, and their feet are even bigger than the rest of them. But they’re funny, silly, lovely boys, and sometimes they even give me ideas for stories.

Photo 3: cat

The member of the household I haven’t mentioned is Abby. She’s an old cat now – about 18, we think – and we got her from Cats Protection when she was 8. If you’re wondering what she’s sitting on, it’s a big sheet of paper covered with post-it notes which form the outline for one of my books. She also enjoys sitting on sheets of A4 with writing on, and my lap when I’m working. I’d like to think it’s because she’s grown more affectionate as she’s got older, but I suspect it’s because she reckons she could do a better job.

Photo 4: London fog

I took this photo of London in the fog a few years ago, when we were on holiday there. I’d gone for a run through the Thames foot tunnel and into Greenwich, hoping for wonderful views and crisp winter weather. I got fog. I began to run up the hill in Greenwich Park, and stopped pretty quickly when I realised the path was covered in a thin layer of smooth ice! Undeterred, I switched to the grass, and typically, the fog started to lift when I got myself down again. I grew up in south London, and Greenwich was one of the places we visited often as a family. I still love it. And this photo of mysterious, murky London leads nicely on to the final one…

Photo 5: Sherlock!

I also grew up with Sherlock Holmes. All the books in the local library, Jeremy Brett on the box, and of course Russ Abbot’s ‘Barratt Holmes’ sketches. Eventually I got my own ‘Complete Works’, a large-format paperback. Little did I know I’d end up writing my own spin on the great detective!

I picked up this rather handsome beast at a charity bookshop for £5. It’s a facsimile edition, with gilt-edged pages, a ribbon bookmark, and all the original illustrations. It’s even laid out in columns. Whenever I need to do Sherlock research, this is the book I pull out. This photo also makes reference to my book habit, which has now spread to the rest of the household. I sometimes worry we’ll be crushed by books. Not often enough to stop buying them, though.