Just 18 months ago, Kerry Gardiner was struggling to make ends meet as a single mum on benefits.

But after deciding, almost on a whim, to try her hand at becoming an author, her life is unrecognisable.

Kerry discovered she had a flair for writing, and is now about to publish her fifth crime thriller.

The books, available both in paperback and for download, have been so successful that she is now supporting herself and her son Matthew, nine, has just moved into her own house and has even fulfilled a dream by booking to take Matthew to Disneyland next year.

Formerly a police control room operator taking 999 calls, Kerry had to give up the shift work in 2005 when Matthew was born.

But her interest in crime spurred her to take a law degree in a bid to better her life.

She graduated with a 2.1, despite having to retake a year of the course after being treated for a brain aneurysm.

“It was really hard, with Matthew on my own,” Kerry, 43, admitted.

“But I was thinking ‘this is the start of something good’.

My dream was always to be a criminal defence lawyer, still is, to be honest.

“It was always important to me that Matthew had a mum that was working, that was doing something.”

But Kerry discovered she could not work as a solicitor without taking the £10,000 post-graduate course, something she simply could not afford as a single parent.

“I started looking for jobs – anything, just working at Asda or Tesco,” she said.

“I got very depressed because it struck me that I was going to be living for the rest of my life with a spare £20 or £30 a week, never going to be able to do the things I wanted to do, like take Matthew to Disneyland.”

Her passion for crime led her to try writing a book and, in August last year, she completed her first novel The Game, under the pen-name A J Carella.

Kerry, who lives in Talbot Village, Bournemouth, self-published the book and has not looked back since.

She now has a Facebook page with 5,500 followers, and one of her novels has 270 reviews on Amazon, with an average four-star rating.

Not bad for someone who was not even brought up in England – Kerry went to school in Geneva in Switzerland and doesn’t have any English qualifications.

“I don’t know why a sentence is right, I just know that it is,” she explained.

“I think it’s just from reading all the time – I would read five or six books a week as a kid.

“I enjoy it and the reviews on Amazon that I’m getting are fantastic.

“It’s changed our lives. Matthew is really proud of me and that’s really important.

“It’s so nice when he goes to school that he’s proud of me. He’s telling all his friends that his mum’s got a book out.”

Kerry, who has been invited into Matthew’s school to teach a class in creative writing, is urging more people to follow their dreams and says she is proof that anything is possible.

“I really think it’s important for people to think outside the box. In this digital age there are so many opportunities out there.

“I’ve always had that fascination with crime and I’m just going to keep on writing.

“I’m loving being able to pick Matthew up from school every day and spend time with him, and even being able to pay my own bills.

“Matthew wants to be an author when he grows up and he knows he’s not going to get anywhere by sitting around and doing nothing. That’s a really big motivation for me.

“I’m just thrilled how things are turning out. It’s beyond my wildest dreams.”

  • Kerry Gardiner’s books The Game, To Kill For, Blood Sport, Hard Time and Gang Land, by A J Carella, are available to order in paperback from Amazon, and can be downloaded for Kobo, Kindle, iPad and Nook