A GREENHAM-based writer is celebrating a huge milestone having sold more than one million copies of her books internationally.

USA Today bestselling author, Judy Leigh, otherwise known by her occasional pen-name Elena Collins, is “excited and humbled” to have reached this sales milestone.

She said: “It feels very nice, obviously. Exciting. Celebratory. But quite humbling. I didn't start out intending to sell a million, just to write for different groups of readers.

“It's a privilege that people want to buy my books and enjoy them.”

Author of the bestselling novels A Grand Old Time and Five French Hens, Judy has been writing since 2016 having completed a master’s degree at Falmouth University in professional writing.

She established her place as an engineer of the ‘it’s never too late’ genre of women’s fiction, before extending her practice to the likes of crime and historical, or dual timeline, fiction.

She said: “I like that idea of writing with different styles and different genres and being expected to do different things with my style as I respond to the challenges of the book.

“You wouldn’t want soup for every meal, so it’s really nice to have three things to whet your appetite.”

So far, Judy has published a total of 18 books across the three genres with both HarperCollins Avon and the independent publishing house Boldwood Books, with her next, Silver-Haired Sisterhood, set to release this December.

She added: “It became quite a big thing for me that there weren’t novels for specific groups of people, one of the groups of people being my mother’s generation.

“So, I kind of got into writing second chance novels, at that point, for older people and older women.”

Judy began her career in theatre, writing and directing plays as well as teaching the performing arts across the country and in China.

Having decided to switch careers, Judy completed a spontaneous master’s degree before going on to publish her first book with HarperCollins Avon in 2018.

“I mean I started writing at about three. You know you put a pen in somebody’s hand, and they write,” said Judy.

“I’ve always wanted to write, and I got to that point in my career where i could go one way or I could go another and my children had just left home so I decided to do something for me.”

In 2020, Judy joined her now publisher, Boldwood Books, an award-winning global fiction publishing house founded in 2019.

She said: “The team really are quite incredible – they’re just a joy, it’s really like working with a family. There’s that support and that listening and talking to each other.”

Having lived everywhere from Liverpool to Cornwall, the writer moved to her 17th century home between Greenham and Appley in 2017, which she says is an inspirational place to live and write.

“Of course, every morning, when I get up, the first thing I do is go and walk in the woods because that’s where the ideas come.”

“It’s the best move I’ve ever made, moving to Somerset, it’s absolutely lovely.”