Mother of four Karen Woods uses her experiences of growing up on a Manchester council estate in her writing. Having left school with no qualifications, Karen spent her formative years raising children and suffering domestic abuse. This is her ninth novel. Since taking up writing Karen has been snapped up by a leading literary agent and her first novel, Broken Youth, was performed as a play at Salford's Lowry Theatre in June 2013. Another of her novels, 'Teabags and Tears' is due to hit the stage in January 2014. Karen was awarded the Learning for Work Individual Award for 2013.