The author of The Girl on the Train on discovering Alison Bechdel, identifying with Physical, and her favourite new crime novel
Born in Zimbabwe in 1972, author Paula Hawkins studied PPE at Oxford University before joining the Times as a business journalist. She started writing romantic fiction under the name Amy Silver, and in 2015 published The Girl on the Train, a psychological thriller that went on to become an international bestseller. In 2016, it was adapted into a film starring Emily Blunt and Rebecca Ferguson, and a Hindi-language remake was released earlier this year. Her latest novel, A Slow Fire Burning, is published by Transworld on 31 August.