As someone who has sold more than 57 million copies of her books worldwide, with one of her titles, Me Before You, also turned into a hit film, Jojo Moyes could be forgiven for resting on her laurels. But for the past few years, the best-selling author has been on a mission to push herself out of her comfort zone.
© Getty"I find older women doing interesting things so inspirational," Jojo, 55, tells us in this exclusive interview. "I remember in my 40s feeling as though it would be very easy to lead a smaller life, outside my career.
"So in the past five years, I've pushed myself to keep looking outwards. In January, I went swimming with sharks. It was exhilarating – I think I was on a high for about two weeks afterwards."
As the Kent-born author, who has three children with her former husband, releases her 17th book, We All Live Here, she is determined to enjoy every moment – a feeling encapsulated by HELLO!'s Second Act initiative, which celebrates women of a certain age who are living their best lives.
"We only get one shot at life," she says. "It's such a cliché, but life is not a dress rehearsal, and it suddenly hits you when you get to this age. I'm definitely leading my best life. It has its challenges, but it's really rewarding."
Her new novel centres around Lila, a single mother of two daughters whose husband left her for one of the school mums just after she had published a self-help book about how to revamp a marriage.
Her kind but rigid stepfather Bill has temporarily moved in after the death of her mother, and their lives are turned upside down by the arrival of Lila's long-absent biological father Gene, fresh from a failed acting career.
Jojo has "always wanted" to write a multi-generational drama, she says. "I grew up in a family that was not a conventional shape.
"I have two half-sisters, one half-brother and two step-brothers, and the thing I love about my family is that we might be a fairly odd shape, but we really like each other, even though we are all completely different generations."
However, Lila's problems are emblematic of a generation of women who are juggling busy lives while looking after both their children and their parents. The author recently spoke about the needs of the "sandwich generation" on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, and she believes it's these female characters who aren't written about enough.
"I just don't see women celebrated in all their messy glory, because my friends and I are really stupid quite a lot of the time. We act like we're 12 and we're still getting cross with each other about trivial things and supporting each other. And I love that female friendship, where you absolutely know each other down to your bones. I think that gets more important as you get older."
Jojo began her career as a journalist, working for the Independent alongside contemporaries including Helen Fielding. When she decided to concentrate on writing fiction, her first three manuscripts were rejected before her fourth was published.
© GettyWhat made her keep going? "It was crushing; it's not as though those defeats bounced off me," she says. "But I'm a really stubborn person. Unless you explain to me why I definitely can't do something, I'm going to assume I can do it."
When Me Before You was released, ten years after she published her first book, Jojo's career hit the stratosphere. The tale of a growing romance between a depressed tetraplegic and his bubbly carer, it was an immediate hit and was made into a 2016 film starring Emilia Clarke.
"Everything that has happened since Me Before You has been so far beyond what I expected," she says. "I've said to my daughter: ‘If I got hit by a bus tomorrow, you need to know I would have lived the most extraordinary life, especially for the past 15, 20 years.
© Bros/Moviestore/Shutterstock"I feel as though I've lived about three different lives and all of them have been brilliant. If my 14-year-old self had seen how my life would turn out, she would not believed it."
She continues: "I got divorced after a very long marriage, and although you can grieve for the end of the future you thought you had, the unexpected bonus is that anything can happen and it could be fantastic.
"Some of it's going to be tough, and some of it's going to be lonely, and some of it's going to be challenging, but some of it's going to be bloody amazing. And I think that's the lovely thing about this age."
We All Live Here is out now, published by Penguin, priced £22.
To read the full exclusive interview, pick up the latest issue of HELLO! on sale in the UK on Monday. You can subscribe to HELLO! to get the magazine delivered free to your door every week or purchase the digital edition online via our Apple or Google apps.
