Mother of four Karen Woods uses her experiences of growing up on a Manchester council estate in her writing. Having left school with no qualifications, Karen spent her formative years raising children and suffering domestic abuse. Since taking up writing Karen has been snapped up by a leading literary agent and her first novel, Broken Youth, was performed as a play at Salford's Lowry Theatre in June 2013. Another of her novels, 'Teabags and Tears' hit the stage in January 2014. She is currently working on a screenplay of her last novel, Grow Wars. Karen was awarded the Learning for Work Individual Award for 2013 and recently appeared on ITV's 'Loose Women'.