Gill Sanderson

Well, he’s a man. More usually known as Roger Sanderson. Pastimes are running, mountaineering, travel, and weight- training. Not the usual picture of a romantic novelist. Roger started his career by writing the scripts for Commando comics — he has over 80 to his credit. Then his wife Gill started to write a Mills & Boon romance and asked for help with the plotting. The book was finished, sent in under her name and then rejected. Four more joint efforts were rejected, but the editors were always encouraging. Then the fifth, Country Doctors, was accepted in 1995. A further 17 have been written and accepted since then. Unfortunately, Gill’s work as a psychologist working for a government training agency grew much more time-consuming. They tried to carry on working together, but more and more of the books were written by Roger. Now he does all the actual writing. But he still talks over the plots with his wife and gets her to read the books before they are sent to Mills & Boon. All Roger’s romances have a medical background. He has a son, Mark, who is a consultant oncologist in a large London hospital; another son, Adam, who is a district health visitor in Birmingham; and a daughter, Helen, who is a midwife, but currently working in a neonatal ward. Hospitals, surgeries, and clinics deal with birth, pain, fear, recovery, and sometimes death. Workers in medicine know what they do is important. This sense of value makes any romance even more precious.