A former regional press reporter who wrote an acclaimed autobiographical memoir of her childhood is planning a new venture in the world of books.

Christine Fieldhouse, left, who worked on the Derby Evening Telegraph and Northern Echo in the 80s and 90s and now freelances for several national newspapers, published her first book Why Do Monsters Come Out At Night? last summer.

The book – described as “inspirational” by one reviewer – focused on her early life with an alcoholic father and charted her journey from frightened child to a loving mother who has made sense of her past.

Now, a year on, Christine is working on her next project – a fictional novel about a young girl growing up against the backdrop of child abuse and becoming a mother herself.

“Monsters,” which has recently gone on sale in South Africa, was characterised by some as an example of the “misery memoir” genre typefied by earlier works such as Angela’s Ashes and the Dave Pelzer trilogy.

But Christine told HoldtheFrontPage: “I don’t think it of it as a misery book, I think it is quite a positive story, coming out of something that was fairly miserable. I feel very blessed that I’ve got such a nice life now.”

She said her new book will be written in the same kind of style – “the past contrasted with the present.”

“It’s about a girl growing up – older than I was in my book – and it starts off with sexual abuse and goes off into other things,” she added.

Christine now combines her fictional writing with her freelancing for the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Telegraph and other publications. She writes every day, but she says she wants to finish the new book before approaching a publisher.

She is married to Ian Cross, a fellow journalist, and the couple have an eight-year-old son, Jack. Her website can be found here.