I don't think that I could ever retire

BEST-SELLING AUTHOR LYNDA LA PLANTE LAUNCHES A GRIPPING NEW BOOK SERIES.

- BY HANNAH STEPHENSON

PRIME Suspect's fearless detective Jane Tennison may have gone, but at the age of 82 her creator Lynda La Plante is introducing another crime-fighting female in a new book series.

"I actually love writing and I love creating," enthuses the award-winning Liverpool-born crime writer and actress who wrote and produced the Nineties hit Prime Suspect, which starred Helen Mirren, as well as TV series Widows, Trial & Retribution and The Governor, and has penned more than 50 novels.

Funny and eloquent, fizzing with energy, the talented octogenarian looks at least a decade younger than her years and is great company, mimicking characters with authentic accents and creating drama in every story she recounts, going off on entertaining tangents at every opportunity.

"I've been having these chest pains," she reveals, "and the cardiologist said, 'Well, if they continue for more than 10 minutes take yourself off to A&E," which she did after 40 minutes, with her son, Lorcan.

"And then it started. I have eight injection sites - four nurses and a doctor couldn't get a vein," she says dramatically, showing me the bruises. "I was screaming in pain, saying 'I'm going home, I've had enough. Eventually on the ninth attempt they managed to get some blood.

"Later on, one of the doctors came by and he said, 'I'm very sorry for the treatment you had but we didn't realise how old you were. I thought, thanks! You could have killed me!' It turned out to be a chest virus.

Sparkling company, dripping with dry wit and irony, Lynda is sharp as a knife. Her thirst for knowledge is unrelenting, as she talks as enthusiastically as someone half her age about forensic advances, blood spatters, call tracking, light sourcing, fingerprints and footmarks.