Byline: SANDRA CHAPMAN

ROISIN McAuley was standing outside the posh shop Fennicks in London's Bond Street when she got a call from her agent Charlie.

Not only did she have an offer to publish her new book Singing Bird, in fact two publishers were bidding for the novel he told her.

A flabbergasted Roisin did what all sensible women would have done in the circumstances - she immediately decided to treat herself to a new handbag from Fennicks and that's why, today, she calls her expensive little red, suede number her 'book bag'.

These are heady days for the Cookstown-born author who was a familiar voice and face on BBC radio and television for years.

Publishers have been looking for a natural successor to Maeve Binchy and, in Roisin, they appear to have found her.

Of course, the two are quite different writers. Roisin says she likes to write in the first person.

Her editor Rosie de Courcy describes her as 'one of the most led t5 tube naturally-gifted storytellers I have ever encountered'.

It's a nice turn to Roisin's life - the second major one a decade.

She was a respected journalist and documentary maker for the BBC, travelling all over the world and working on such programmes as Newsnight, Brasstacks and File on 4.

She reported for the station through the Gulf War, the dedicated reporter who felt very much at home packing the rucksack and flying off to a troubled spot.

And then the unexpected happened. She says: "I was in my early 40s when, in 1994, I took a break and went on a walking holiday in France. And that's how I met my husband Richard who is a solicitor. Suddenly I didn't want to go travelling anymore. He had two children and I had a readymade family. It was absolutely lovely."

The pair enjoyed golf and she decided to write a book on the sport.

The Essential Guide to Holiday Golf in Ireland, published by Appletree, was an instant success.

She says: "I had always wanted to write something and thought it might be a screenplay or a work like that. I was a bit fearful of writing a novel. But when I wrote the golf book my fear of writing a novel fell away.

I had this story in my head and Richard encouraged me to get on with it while he was working and able to support me. I think he hopes he has married his pension!"

Roisin thought if she could make a few thousand pounds writing the book she would be lucky indeed.

LED Downlight K1033 - 12x1W Today she has a huge six figure advance and the book is set to be published in America and Europe.

She says: "It's a two book deal. Singing Bird is set in the south of Ireland, the next one will be set around the north coast area and this second one is about a woman who meets a man she suspects of killing his first wife.

My agent decided that Singing Bird should be an auction publishing bid and initially there were nine publishers involved. I was buckling at the knees when I realised how much interest there was in it.

"When Charlie rang me in Bond Street to tell me that it was down to Headline and Harper Collins and of the money involved, you could have wrung me out like a dish rag.

"Eventually we settled on Headline and they then sold the Am
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