I felt God ask me to remain single and my book, Nun’s Drift, contains what I learned about acceptance

‘I tried to fight that unwelcome ‘call’ [to singleness] when I was older, but it has given me the ability to be available to listen to other singles and really hear them,’ says Sheila Jacobs, who ended up writing a novel with singles as the main characters.

I’d been writing non-fiction (and editing books, my ‘day job’) and hadn’t written a novel for years, when my friend challenged me to write a story for her, for Christmas, and she would paint a picture for me. We exchanged gifts and I thought: This might be the start of a novel. I’d already thought about writing a novel set in an idyllic village, after I’d been to a steam fair in rural East Anglia with another friend.