An author who lives in Richmond has confessed to her dating disasters in a new romance novel – part-memoir, part-advice manual.

Angelique Joan, an actress, voice over talent and most recently author, was born in France and grew up in the historic region of Brittany.

At the age of 20, Angelique moved to London to pursue her career in voice acting and soon found herself participating in films, TV soaps and many commercials.

Richmond and Twickenham Times: (images: Angelique Joan)(images: Angelique Joan) (Image: Angelique Joan)

She has been living in Richmond for almost a year now, after spending eight years in Hammersmith and dabbling in boroughs across east London.

Earlier this month, Angelique released her first book - Ready, Set, 30: a tale of figuring it all out... whatever that means – which paints the story of the young author as she recounts her relatable and self-deprecating twenties as a single woman in the big city.

Angelique told the Richmond and Twickenham Times: “When I turned 30 almost two years ago, I wrote a letter to myself about all the lessons and what I learned from my 20s.

“So, the chapters cover body image, work, love, identity, instincts, family, and you know, everything that we go through in our 20s.

Richmond and Twickenham Times: (images: Angelique Joan)(images: Angelique Joan) (Image: (images: Angelique Joan))

“Because I'm an actress and I have quite a weird lifestyle of not knowing what the next thing is and dealing with many awful side jobs, it turns out that my life has been quite funny.

“And because I love to entertain, I thought, well, why not entertain through stories of that decade while also being very relatable?

“I’ve tried to be very honest about the ups and downs of being in your 20s - not really having a clue and having a lot of self-doubt - just being as real as possible.

“And so, the book is very much conversational.

“People who have read it have said they feel like they’re having a coffee or glass of wine with someone while they're reading it, which is exactly what I was going for.”

Angelique says it took her two years to complete the book, as she faced many trials and tribulations during the writing journey.

Richmond and Twickenham Times: (images: Angelique Joan)(images: Angelique Joan) (Image: (images: Angelique Joan))

She said: “Of course, there were many times where I was like, ‘What the hell was I thinking’, because the story is quite vulnerable at times.

“But I have a lot of good people around me, so they were very encouraging.

“The story hasn’t been out long, but I’ve already received some great feedback and it’s a sense of relief knowing it’s helping people.

“It’s definitely made the two years’ worth it.”

Angelique says authors such as Jen Sincero, Gillian Anderson and Celeste Barber were “hugely influential” as she was writing her debut novel.

Since the release, Angelique has been taking part in a ‘podcast marathon’ and has high hopes to rewrite the book in French.

She added: “a lot of my friends and family in France are asking for the book in French, so I’m currently in the process of doing that.

“I may look at doing a book tour sometime next year.”