Our #WCW today is Paula Hawkins, a British-Zimbabwean author best known for her top-selling psychological novel The Girl on the Train.

Hawkins was born on the 26th of August in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) to Anthony and Glynne Hawkins, she went to Arundel School in Harare before moving to study her A Levels at Collingham College in West London.

She worked as a journalist for The Times, and she went on to work for a number of publications on Freelance basis, and wrote a financial advice book for women, The Money Goddess.

Hawkins is listed as the second most famous Zimbabwean writer, her best-selling novel The Girl on the Train which she published in 2015 is a complex thriller, with themes of domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuses. The novel took her only six months, writing full time to complete, at a time when she was in a difficult financial situation and had to borrow from her father. The novel was adapted into a film in 2016 starring Emily Blunt.

In November 2016, she was listed as one of BBC’s 100 Women. Her second thriller Into The Water was published in 2017 and went on to become a Sunday Times and NYT bestseller. Her third novel, A Slow Fire Burning was published on 31 August 2021.

In 2019, Paula began to write romantic comedy fiction under the name Amy Silver, writing four novels including Confessions of a Reluctant Recessionista.