About Gillian
Gillian Poucher is a novelist whose writing explores the complexities of relationships, the secrets we carry, and the ways in which the past continues to shape the present. Drawing on a varied career and a lifelong love of books, she creates character-driven stories about ordinary people navigating unexpected challenges, difficult choices and new beginnings.
Growing up in Lancashire, Gillian had two childhood ambitions: to work in the Little Chef and to be an author. Sadly she never realised the first ambition and the Little Chef is no more.
After a history degree at Durham University, Gillian qualified as a solicitor. She enjoyed the variety of work in high street practice before training to be a church minister. She was ordained into the United Reformed Church in 2006 and served in the North Lincolnshire area.
It was during maternity leave in 2011/12 that Gillian decided it was time to do something about her writing ambitions and took a creative writing course. She abandoned the course after completing an exercise on character profiles. Those characters assumed lives of their own and one novel unexpectedly developed into a three book series.
The Julia Butler Series follows middle-aged counsellor Julia as she uncovers family secrets, grapples with personal and professional relationships, makes unexpected friendships, and finds love later in life. Each novel may be read as a standalone, although the lives of Julia and other characters progress across the series.
Gillian has also written a contemporary Christian crime novel, ‘Vision of Light’, published by Instant Apostle in 2023. As an avid reader of detective novels as well as women’s fiction and classics, she’s planning a foray into cosy crime next.
Gillian now writes full-time. When she isn’t writing, you’ll probably find her in a bookshop adding to her never-ending TBR pile, or drinking strong coffee in an indie café to fuel her through the pages.