authorvalpenny
- Dec 23, 2020
- 3 min read

From School Mum to #1 on Amazon

Please welcome Lizzie Chantree to the website today. I am sure you will find her a most inspirational person as well as a best selling author.

Essex school mum, Lizzie Chantree, thought that her career was over when her youngest child became unwell, when in fact it led her to becoming a number one, international bestselling author.

Before she began writing, Lizzie had an eclectic background, as she was voted one of the female inventors of the year by The Patent Office, for her invention, Runaway Spray. Runaway Spray is a lipstick size 'ladder' or 'run' stop spray for hosiery. This led to her being invited onto television and radio shows such as This Morning, Open House with Gloria Hunniford, The Big Breakfast and The BBC World Wide Service. She was interviewed for the ITV lunchtime news and invited to the Sky news studios for another interview. Her first customers were The Arcadia Group and Superdrug.

Lizzie ran her wholesale and retail business for over fifteen years until her daughter became unwell and this resulted in a career change to be close to her child, who has severe contact allergies. During this time Lizzie began writing, as a way to stay awake and watch over her child at night. She then hid her first book in a cupboard for five years until her daughter’s health began to improve. At the age of 40, while still a school mum, Lizzie decided to publish her first book. She now has six bestsellers to her name and is traditionally published, by French publisher, Crooked Cat Books, and American publishers, BHC Press. Lizzie’s books all reflect her past business life in the fact that her stories revolve around female entrepreneurs, who have some pretty eclectic ideas and get themselves into all sorts of shenanigans, but find their own happily ever afters along the way.

Lizzie is currently writing her tenth book and now works as a business/creative mentor, speaks at writing and other creative seminars and runs trending networking hour, #CreativeBizHour on Twitter for her over 65k followers. She also runs a Facebook group for writers where she helps them nurture their own stories.

Lizzie’s daughter now very proudly tells everyone that she was the catalyst for her mum’s writing career. In between the school run and baking cakes, or burning them, Lizzie now sits in her rooftop studio, daydreaming about new characters and how to make her readers smile with her stories. She regularly features other authors on her author website and feels that being over 40 has given her the maturity to chase her dreams and not be scared by them. Lizzie now has a whole new career that she loves and a supportive network of amazing readers and author friends who inspire her to keep writing.

The Author

International bestselling author and award-winning inventor, Lizzie Chantree, started her own business at the age of 18 and became one of Fair Play London and The Patent Office’s British Female Inventors of the Year in 2000. She discovered her love of writing fiction when her children were little and now works as a business mentor and runs a popular networking hour on social media, where creatives can support to each other. She writes books full of friendship and laughter, that are about women with unusual and adventurous businesses, who are far stronger than they realise. She lives with her family on the coast in Essex. Visit her website at www.lizziechantree.com or follow her on Twitter @Lizzie_Chantreehttps://twitter.com/Lizzie_Chantree.

International bestselling author Lizzie Chantree, started her own business at the age of 18 and became one of Fair Play London and The Patent Office’s British Female Inventors of the Year. She writes books full of friendship and laughter, about women with unusual businesses, who are stronger than they realise.