Author Ray Robinson was all set to work as a hill shepherd in North Yorkshire until life took an interesting turn. He talks to Lindsay Jennings about growing up with lesbian parents.

RAY Robinson has just returned from a reading of his debut novel, Electricity, in Cambridge. He admits he was a little nervous before his appearance, but soon got into the way of things - brushing aside a daft question from one woman.

"She was asking me about Lily's clothes and why I didn't mention more about her clothes," says Ray, somewhat bemused by the obsession with his leading character's dress sense. "But I just said to her 'you haven't read the book have you?'"

If she had, she would have had more than Lily O Connor's clothes to focus on. Lily is Ray's gutsy, tough-talking narrator who happens to have epilepsy, viewing the world as a hostile place containing a series of very sharp edges. When she does have seizures, Ray drags the reader through the experience with her.

Regardless of her clothes, he has somehow managed to get in the mind of a streetwise young, epileptic woman - which is not bad going for a 34-year-old man who grew up in rural Bedale, North Yorkshire.

He felt compelled to write about epilepsy after watching the harrowing seizures of one of his cousins.

"It was terrifying but, perhaps perversely, intriguing," he says. "Watching her thrashing about on the floor, I'd wonder what it felt like to be her, and those early experiences are something that I've always tried to write about. But I found I couldn't write about it in the third person, I had to try and get into the consciousness about the character."

In his new work, he is exploring what it is like to live with lesbian parents in a rural community - this time drawing on his own experience.

Ray lived with his grandparents, Charlie and Bella Robinson, until he was eight years old before he went to live with his mother and her girlfriend. He says that having lesbian parents and living in a rural community was a difficult, often painful experience.

"It was quite unforgiving at times," he says. "I was ostracised by other kids throughout my childhood because my mother was a lesbian. But it was made especially difficult because my mother was not 'out' and didn't come out until I was 21. If she had been it would have been easier because I may have been able to talk to her about it."

It's clear he finds it a difficult subject to discuss and is reluctant to go into too much detail. But he may have to get used to talking about it if this particular work is published. He says his "honest portrayal" may upset other lesbian parents "because I don't portray it in a positive light, I show how difficult it can be."

He has yet to decide how far he will go talking about his upbringing in Press interviews.

"I can either speak out and be a voice for people in a similar situation or just let the work do the talking. It's something I'm not sure about," he admits.

Ray's mother now lives in Scotland and he hasn't spoken to her for years. He also declines to talk about his father, but says he has fond memories of living with his grandparents, to whom he remained close until their recent deaths.

"I was very close to my grandfather and I had quite an idyllic upbringing until I was eight," he says. "He taught me to hunt and we used to go shooting and poaching. I thought it was completely normal and every kid did that, but I was just lucky I had a grandfather who was educated in the ways of the country."

Ray went to Bedale Comprehensive and failed his GCSEs "so magnificently" that he went to work as a hill shepherd. He thought that was his lot until he was accepted to Harrogate College of Arts to study graphic design. After Harrogate, Ray went to the Liverpool School of Art and studied for a BA in graphic design before spending years travelling and teaching English in Spain, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Throughout, he wrote poetry and short stories and was eventually accepted for an MA in creative writing at Lancaster University. He is now completing a PhD in creative writing.

HE was halfway through his Phd when he sent off the first draft for Electricity. To his surprise, the rough copy ended up the subject of a bidding war between publishers Picador and Penguin. He opted for Picador and recalls the sweet moment he held his newly published book in his hands.

"That was the time it actually sank in, it became tangible then," he says. "Even though it was all I'd dreamt about all my life, it did have a very unreal feel to it and it wasn't until I could hold it in my hands that it meant something."

He has a "blue collar" approach to writing and tries to write from 9am to 5pm, five days a week. He's naturally nocturnal but it fits in better with his girlfriend, Lynne McCafferty, a barrister who's originally from Richmond, North Yorkshire.

He writes in the British Library in London, straight on to the computer. Many writers would be daunted sitting before an empty screen every day, but Ray insists: "I never have any problems writing and I don't suffer from writers' block. I think that's a lame excuse. There's always something to write about."

Electricity has been well received by critics, with the Independent describing it as "one of the fiction highlights of 2006." He is getting used to the Press attention and was recently interviewed on Radio 4's Woman's Hour.

"I was so nervous and hardly slept the night before, but Jenny Murray was fantastic. It was just like a very relaxed conversation."

He is a big fan of American literature, and is inspired by authors such as the Los Angeles based poet and novelist Charles Bukowski.

"I think British literature still needs to be democratised. There's still not enough working class voices," he says. "I love Harper Lee and her work set in the deep south. It reminds me a lot of my background and where I came from as an outsider in a small rural town. But then maybe writers are all outsiders because they're always observing other people. There's something very voyeuristic about writers."

Ray, who now lives in London, returned to North Yorkshire recently for a book signing and says he took a drive through Bedale.

"I saw some of my old teachers from school and old friends I went to school with

who I hadn't seen for years which was nice," he says. Was it a cathartic experience, coming back as a successful author to a place where he wasn't at his happiest?

"I'm not successful yet," he says, bursting into laughter before conceding: "It was a little bit weird. I had a look around Bedale and it did feel bizarre but I've still got a lot of friends in Northallerton."

His next novel to be published will be Thicker Than Water, the sequel to Electricity, which he says actually changes the ending to his first novel.

By the time it's released, he'll probably be an old pro at Press interviews. And care even less about silly questions on his character's clothes.

* Electricity is out now. (Picador, £10.99).