When Joan Brady became the first woman to win the Whitbread book prize, her work was compared to literary giants such as John Steinbeck and Jack London. But 15 years after she hit the literary limelight, she has gone from writing heavyweight bestsellers to crime stories. And she claims the reason is not writer's block but glue fumes from a neighbouring shoe workshop.

The writer has just won a settlement of £115,000 after she claimed to have become so intoxicated from the fumes that she was reduced to writing thrillers.

She suffered numbness in her hands and legs because of the solvents used by Conker, a shoemaker based next to her home in Totnes, Devon.

Because of the fumes, she said, she was unable to concentrate on writing a highbrow novel, Cool Wind From The Future, and had to resort to a crime story which she found easier. When she originally alerted South Hams District Council to the problem, its environmental health department said that it was unable to test for the chemicals. When it did eventually conduct a test, the equipment registered a reading so high it was off the scale. Doctors at Guy's Hospital in London confirmed Miss Brady had nerve damage that was likely to have been caused by chemicals.

Conker disputes that any damage was caused by its solvents, but the company's insurers chose to settle. Prem Ash, a former co-owner of the factory, said her company used the safest glues on the market. "We're disappointed that the insurers decided to settle," she added. "We were quite prepared to go to court so that everybody could realise we'd done nothing wrong.”

Miss Brady, who has since moved to Oxford, has already taken revenge in her new novel, Bleedout. The villain of the piece is named Mr Poole in an oblique reference to one of the workshop owners. And South Hams District Council has been reincarnated as South Hams State Prison.

Source: www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=510210&in_page_id=1770


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