A THRILLING NEW CHAPTER

Geri Horner opens up about her lifelong love of literature, how she feels about being a best-selling author – and what her husband and children really think of her books

- SALLY JAMES

Long before she made her name in one of the world’s most successful girlbands, Geri Horner was a self-confessed lover of literature who enjoyed nothing more than whiling away her days lost in the pages of a good book in her garden.

Now a mother of two and a stepmum, the former Spice Girl has returned to her literary roots as a best-selling author, with the latest volume in her Rosie Frost series, Rosie Frost: Ice on Fire, out now.

Just like Geri, her protagonist is a redhead, and in this tale of murder and revenge, young Rosie faces tough emotions following the death of her mother – a situation the author can relate to.

“She’s grieving. I lost my father when I was young,” says Geri, whose father Laurence died of a heart attack in 1993, a year before she joined the Spice Girls. “I know how grief can manifest in a very strange way when you’re young.”

The singer and author reveals that her children – daughter Bluebell, 18, who is studying English literature at university, eight-year old son Monty and stepdaughter Olivia, 11 – are fans of her books, as is her husband Christian Horner, team principal of Formula 1’s Red Bull Racing.

She has also sent copies to her fellow Spice Girls, although she has so far resisted the urge to chase her busy former bandmates for feedback.

Here, Geri, 52, opens up about her passion for writing, why her books are “an evolution of girl power” and which Hollywood stars she can imagine playing Rosie on screen.

Geri, you’re known worldwide as a Spice Girl. How would you describe yourself now?