Bestselling author Jenny Tomlin, mother of actress Martine McCutcheon, tells Hannah Stephenson that her daughter’s forthcoming novel will not be like her dark tales of abuse.

THE queen of the misery memoir, Jenny Tomlin, mother of actress Martine McCutcheon, is not as tragic as you might imagine.

Upbeat, positive and truly happy in her life now, it’s difficult to believe that she was sexually abused by her father, unprotected by her slovenly mother and then married a violent man who battered her senseless even when she was pregnant with Martine.

Her disturbing story was told in her memoirs Behind Closed Doors and Silent Sisters, which became bestsellers, enabling her to buy a 12-acre French farmhouse in the Dordogne with her second husband, Alan Tomlin, a bodyguard she married in Barbados nine years ago.

Then, of course, there’s her daughter. You can hear Martine laughing in the background as her mother describes their relationship.

“She’s my best friend. No matter what life throws at her, she has such a positive outlook. She’s strong mentally, she’s funny, witty, clever.

We just get on incredibly well.

“Because I had her so young (at 19), it’s almost like we’re mates. I’m so proud of that fact because I never had that with my mother. I’m proud of the job I’ve done. She always makes me feel special.”

At the farm, Jenny, 52, runs an English grocery shop and tea garden, serving up full English breakfasts and afternoon teas to hungry customers and selling a variety of sundries from Oxo cubes to baked beans.

She moved to France to escape the many bad memories, and experience a more tranquil setting.

It’s a sunny life, a far cry from her dark past and her equally dark and graphic novels which centre on victims of abuse. Her latest, Send Me No Flowers, sees a respectable young woman fall under the spell of a charming businessman who turns out to be a sadistic, dangerous criminal.

Jenny admits that her books to some extent mirror her own life, as vicious men entrap vulnerable women who find it almost impossible to escape. Each time one of her books is published, she receives thousands of letters from both women and men, who can in some way relate to her own struggles.

She tries to answer every letter and every email, she says.

Family remains the most important thing in Jenny’s life and she is extremely close to Martine, 32, and her son, LJ, who is 17 and suffers from autism.

She doesn’t worry about her daughter’s showbiz career or take much notice of the gossip columns detailing her love life, and says that she’s not worried about Martine settling down and having a family just yet.

The actress has written her debut novel, The Mistress, due for publication in July.

Does this mean mother and daughter in competition?

“I’m the misery queen and she’s the romantic one. We have totally different styles of writing,” she laughs.