but portugal retook the lead soon afterwards. 2—1 it finished, which means scotland's hopes of progressing to the knockout stages are out of their own hands. so scotland have lost their second game. and england kick off shortly elsewhere in group d, facing spain. and our sports correspondent, katie gornall, is with the team in breda. england fans have descended here ahead of their big game. the game could decide who wins group d, after both teams won their opening matches, spain beating portugal and england beating scotland. spain are rising quickly through the rankings in uefa, and many people have them down as dark horses for this tournament. mark sampson has tipped them to do well, saying that they play a pleasing style of football, easy on the eye, but he also says they are a difficult team to fall in love with, because they sometimes feign injury, and he has warned his players to be wary of spain's dark arts, as he calls them. looking at the tournament as a whole, with france drawing with austria last night,

there is an opportunity for one of the big teams to take this tournament by the scruff of the neck. that could be england. if they win here tonight, it would underline their status as contenders. that is exciting, and that kicks off just about now. that's all from sportsday. there'll be more sport on the bbc news channel throughout the evening. now it's time for meet the author. my guest today is one of the world's most popular crime writers, the rather aptly named karin slaughter. after finding fame with her first novel blindsighted, she's gone on to sell more than 35 million copies of her books, including the will trent and grant county series. her latest book is called the good daughter.

it focuses on two sisters whose family is torn apart after a terrifying attack on their home, which leaves their mother dead and both of them damaged in very different ways. years later, the horrors of the past return. karin slaughter, the good daughter links to deadly events, this terrifying attack on the family, and then 28 years later, a shooting in a school, as seen through the eyes of two sisters, sam and charlie. why was this the story you wanted to tell? about two years ago, i was writing notes about different characters, because that is what i do. it always starts with characterfor me. the character of gamma came to me.

i had this great line, or i thought it was a great line about her, that i used in the book. it said she was as pale as an envelope and just as likely to cause tiny cuts in inconvenient places. so that note was in my shower actually, i've got a waterproof notebook because i'm such a nerd! i clean my shower, but it's there in my shower. i thought about it for a couple of years every time i was in the shower, and the story started to gel in my head. i had this choice between writing a new will trent book or writing this, and i thought that will trent story isn't where i wanted to be in my head right now. but these characters just really kind of came to me and begged to be talked about. we should explain that gamma is the mother of the two sisters, and they don't always see eye to eye, do they? their relationship is quite fractious. i know you were the youngest of three sisters, i wonder how much your relationship informed the relationship we read about in the book.

you know, i think with writers, it is probably the same with news presenters and interviewers, you know, everything in your life informs how you approach the work. of course, being the youngest of three girls, i knew about sister relationships, and the thing i love is, when i'm around my sisters, it's like i'm 12 years old again. i'm thinking of things i can tattle on that they've done, and even if my sister comes to my house, she'll make lunch for me and cut the crust off my sandwich! we just fall back into those patterns. we reallyjust still see each other as those kids. sometimes i'm almost afraid she's going to hit me with a clothes hanger or something. i like writing about those relationships, because i think who we are as children really informs who we are as adults. the opening chapter of the book in particular, is very, very violent, and i wonder, do you set out to shock your readers? a long time ago a reader said to me why do you spend so much time on character development if you're just going to kill them?

and i said, you wouldn't care, right, you wouldn't care if they died if you didn't care about the characters. every single person in this book has to have some sort of resonance for the reader, and i work very carefully. i think that's sometimes why people think i'm more violent than i actually am, because they very much care about who this victim is, and what it does to the family, the community, and everyone involved in the investigation. and that's really important to me because i don't want to write about violence just for the sake of violence. i don't want to just be someone who wants to shock. i want to have it happen for a reason, and the reason is always to explore, what does crime do to communities? how does it tear people apart? how does it put them back together? it's interesting that you mentioned community because one of the things that struck me about the novel is the sense of place. it's set in this small, rural conservative community, pikeville, where everybody knows each other‘s business. is that similar to the sort of place you grew up in? it is.

when i first started writing my grant county series a million years ago, i chose to write about a small town because everybody said, "write what you know." and i know small towns. i know that insularity, and the thing is though, you don't really know the people. you think you know them but then something shocking happens and you really learn about who they are. that's the fun of writing a book like this. i know you said growing up you didn't think you fitted in. i wondered why that was? you know, ijust didn't. i remember very specifically, because i found the actual lunchbox that i carried to school years ago, and i had taped a picture of marilyn monroe after the autopsy on to the side of my lunchbox, and i remember this had an immediate effect in school and my parents were called to the school. my dad was sitting there and the principal was saying, "this is very unusual that she's done this and we are a little bit worried."

my dad said, "look, she's weird, she's always been weird." you say you were weird, you were always writing as a child, weren't you? am i right that you wrote a story if cats had thumbs, about a man who had lost his thumbs in a boating accident? how old were you when you wrote that story? you know, i think i was 14. right. and i had this great teacher, an english teacher, who introduced me to flannery o'connor. as this little girl growing up in a small southern town. there were a lot of messages we got like, always sit with your legs crossed, and don't be too loud, let the boys talk, and don't let them know how smart you are. don't be interested in things that are not ladylike. then i read flannery o'connor and i thought, wow, this is the pattern i want to follow, someone who speaks their mind, and more importantly, as a writer, who writes the way people talk. the colloquial language in there was very much like my family and everybody around me.

itjust gave me this understanding that women can talk about these things, and you should really tell the story you want to tell. i really took that message home with me, and this was my homage to o'connor when i wrote that. of course, she probably didn't imagine a man without thumbs, but it was my way of doing it. you have been writing since you were a child, as i said, you wanted to be a writer, but you got diverted into doing otherjobs. why was that? you know, when i graduated high school, and was going to college, my dad said to me, actually on my graduation day, he said, "you know, i'm so proud of you. you can do anything you want but you can't live at home." financial independence was his main goal, which i think is a laudable thing for a parent to want their kid to be successful. so i was an exterminator, i painted houses. hold on, an exterminator, of what? of insects. so you did these otherjobs, and then you decide to take the plunge and become

a writer full—time? how did that happen? it didn't really happen that way. i never thought i could call myself an author until i was published. all along, even through these jobs i was writing, working on stories, sending stuff to agents, trying to get something in a magazine or something like that. and it took probably eight years. i had the goal that i wanted to be published by the time i was 30, and it came at 29, so i was right under that. it was really a struggle and trying to find my voice actually is what it took, just writing really bad stories before i could write the good ones. what made you decide it was thrillers and crime thrillers in particular that you wanted to write? i think really if you are a writer it kind of chooses you, what kind of stories you're going to tell. my first book i got with my agent was actually historical fiction. i grew up in georgia, i was a woman, i thought i had to write the next gone with the wind.

even that, it had a lot of crime in itfor a southern historicalfiction novel. no one wanted to publish it. i asked my agent, what should i do now, and she said i think you should write whatever you want to write. i stopped thinking i had to write a certain way and i really embraced what i loved reading which was thrillers. so final question, is karin slaughter your real name? it is. i got beaten up in school a lot for it so i think i have earned it. karin slaughter, great to talk to you, many thanks. thank you. some sunshine today, but also some

torrential downpours in places. another view of some threatening cloud in the distance. still some heavy showers this evening affecting england and wales. the worst of these will fade tonight, but outbreaks of brain affecting northern england and pushing into the midlands. the clearer skies tonight will be across the west, with the odd fog patch. while most of us stay in double figures, in the west it might be single figures. east—west split for monday. eastern areas keep plenty of cloud close to the area of low pressure and some fabrics of rain. further west, brighter skies. —— some outbreaks of rain. sunny spells to begin with in south—west england and wales, but cloud outbreaks of rain in the midlands, lincolnshire, yorkshire and north—east england. some sunny spells in north—west england and another fine day on the way for more violent on monday and much of scotland. for some of us in the west, it will be a very warm day. outbreaks of rain on monday

affecting the central area, patchy in nature. some sunny spells in east anglia and the far south—east of england. some sunshine, maybe low 20s. cloud and rain along the north sea coasts, maybe 15 or 16. the real warmth will be in western parts, widely in the low 20s with some spots into the mid—20s. monday evening, still some patchy rain in the far east of england, gradually clearing overnight. tuesday, the odd shower around, but most places will avoid those and stay dry. after a cloudy start, some pleasant sunny spells developing and some warmth around. still a bit cooler on north sea coasts. a gap between weather systems doesn't last long because, as you can see, the big picture for wednesday shows another area of low pressure coming in from the atlantic. that will spread rain across the country and on wednesday with a freshening wind. once that's moved out of the way, fresh air by

the time we get to thursday, with sunshine and showers. another week of changeable weather, briefly warmer earlier in the week, but turning wet again on wednesday and windy by then, too. this is bbc news. i'm nicholas owen. the headlines at 8pm: the bbc‘s director general, lord hall says he'll go further and faster to tackle the pay gap, as more than a0 female presenters sign a letter demanding the corporation tackle the issue. there's been legislation about all this since 1970. it's got to stop and we've got to do something about it really really quickly. a 20—year—old man has died after being confronted by a police officer in a london shop. regrets about a final phone call. 20 years after the death of diana — william and harry open up about the relationship with their mother, in a documentary marking the anniversary of her death. the british cyclist, chris froome, is crowned winner of the tour de france for the fourth time in five years. also in the next hour: victory

at lords for england's women at the cricket world cup final. in a nail—biting finish, the lionesses beat india