‘I wanted to give Bedford a bit of a cheer’

Ruth Hogan made her home town the centre of her latest novel, The Phoenix Ballroom. Her latest work was inspired by an Art Deco building on the Embankment which was demolished in the 1980s. An earlier book, The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes, featured Foster Hill Road Cemetery in Bedford. Her publisher says, in total, her books have sold more than two million copies so far.