Author Portia MacIntosh: 'I write four books a year and it doesn't feel like work'

Yorkshire author Portia MacIntosh is at her least creative when she’s sat at a desk. Perhaps it stems from the fact she wrote her first book whilst on the road as a music journalist.

“I just can’t if I sit at a desk,” the 39-year-old chuckles. “I’m uncomfortable, it just doesn’t feel right. I like to curl up with my laptop. It’s like if I’m cosy I’ve decided I can dip into my brain and get it all out.”

It’s clearly working. Portia, who is known for her romantic comedies, releases around four books every year and has recently launched her 43rd novel – the audiobook Ex En Provence. "It’s such a human experience to want to find love of any kind, whether romantic or not and I love to write the journeys of people reaching that point in their lives,” she says.

“As far as Provence goes, I wanted the most ridiculously romantic scenario - France, a Frenchman, a vineyard. I was trying to come up with the most aggressively romantic situation (the lead character) could find herself in so that someone who was actively avoiding love was romanced from all angles.”

“With any romantic comedy, there’s always really relatable stuff at the heart of it,” she continues. “The book deals with themes of divorce and bereavement which are things a lot of people experience. If I think of some of the worst times in my life, I remember so much humour in them as a vehicle through so I touch on those themes but in a light-hearted way. When you package something like that with a hopefully happy ending, it does just show that darker times in your life are just chapters in a much bigger book.”

Portia, who grew up near Oakworth, the village home to the station where The Railway Children was filmed, and Haworth, where the Bronte sisters lived, says she has been “bookish” from childhood, perhaps inspired by her environment. She wanted to become an author, but didn’t know how – so she turned instead to music journalism.

“But the feeling to write fiction never went away,” she says. “Whilst I was touring with bands, and meeting people, seeing backstage, I was like I could write so many stories about this. Writing a fictionalised take on my experiences was a good way to tell the stories of what was happening but without people stopping inviting me to things because I was telling secrets. That was the first book I took to a publisher and the first book I got published. I liked (doing novels) way more.”

This one, Ex En Provence, is an Audible Original title, an audiobook brought to life with the voice of talented actors including Lara Peake. “To see it in the hands of people used to performing in front of the camera, I think it’s such a different end product,” Portia says. “You can almost see them acting when you're listening to it.”

“People are surprised how much write but I love it so much, it doesn’t feel like work,” she adds. “It's nice to just go into your head and write stories that make people smile, it’s a nice escape.”

• Ex En Provence is available exclusively from audible.co.uk.