Jane Allison, debut novelist at 72

Born in Pontefract, where the liquorice comes from – I even had a vacation job at the factory! I studied for O and A levels at the Girls’ High School and participated in school drama productions there. Leaving school, I chose to attend the new University of Sussex, which enjoyed some notoriety during the 1960s. I benefitted greatly from a glorious three years there. Having spent a year out before university, teaching in a tough primary school in Pontefract, I knew I wanted to be a teacher. I took the Cert Ed in English at Durham and went on to teach English at several schools. However, I took 8 years out when my children were born and then returned part-time until I finally got a full-time post as an English teacher at Garstang High School in Lancashire. Four years later we moved to Durham. My husband’s career as a Methodist Minister involved us in several moves to different churches during these years and we ended up in Colchester in 2005. It was then I finally retired from teaching and began writing the story that I had been meaning to write for many years.

Julia Vaughan, author of Daisy Chain, Grave Issue, and The Rapunzel Murders, is a Medical Secretary living in Shropshire with her husband and 2 cats. As a youngster, she wanted to be Destiny Angel or one of Charlie’s Angels. Neither came to pass. Julia completed a degree from Worcester University in English & Literary Studies with Associated Drama and has been writing crime and mystery fiction for years, with the odd short story published. She’s happiest when watching Columbo, Law & Order and Midsomer Murders.

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Helen Aitchison is a writer from North East England. She is the director of a Community Interest Company, Write on the Tyne, which provides creative writing courses and mentoring with a focus on engaging marginalised people. Helen also teaches for her local council, is a freelance writer for StoryTerrace and an on-line journalist for Radio Gateshead.

Helen has 20 years’ experience in the health and social care sector, from frontline support work with victims of domestic abuse to senior management for a national charity supporting homeless and vulnerable adults and young people.

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Lynne Hackles has been writing for many years. Her short stories have appeared in women’s magazines in the UK and abroad. She has regular features in Writing Magazine and has had a children’s novel for pre-teens and four non-fiction books published. She has also ghosted a book. Lynne is a creative writing tutor for a correspondence course and has led workshops and given many talks.

Until the first lockdown she was of no fixed abode as she and her husband had been travelling for three years all over the UK in their motorhome. After all the campsites closed they lived on a friend’s drive for seventeen weeks before moving into a house and selling Bill, their beloved motorhome.

Lynne is known for her sense of humour and has been told she should be doing stand-up comedy. She says she knows there is a difference between comedy and humour and she can’t stand up for long due to a life-time back problem.

Back in 2007 she appeared on Deal or No Deal and was described by Noel Edmonds as having warmth, colour, energy and positivity. He also thought she was a little crazy as she gambled between 10p and £75,000. She won the big money.

I was born and brought up in Scotland of an English mother and Irish father and have lived in several different regions of England throughout my adult life. After a career teaching English, among other subjects, in every sector of education (except primary), and raising two lovely daughters, I at last found time to write. A distance learning course in novel writing soon had me hooked on historical fiction and I have produced about a novel a year for the last ten years. I love the background reading and research and often locate my novels in regions known to me, exploring the lives and experiences of ordinary people caught up in larger historical events, in a range of different periods. My husband of 45 years and I are now thoroughly enjoying the experience of being grandparents to four young children

Keith lives in Wales with his wife, two young daughters and a cockapoo that looks more like a teddy bear than a dog. Before he began writing thrillers, Keith served in the British Army and actively engaged in operational duties in Iraq, Kosovo and Bosnia. He then pursued careers in a multitude of industries until he finally decided to follow his true passion – writing. When he isn’t writing you can usually find him up one of the many mountains or on one of the many beaches of Wales, probably with a teddy bear in tow that’s desperate for him to throw the ball for him again and again and again.

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Alex Hughes lived in Zambia until the age of six, before moving to England and the historic cathedral city of Canterbury. At 17 he was diagnosed with severe depression and left school to recover.

While recovering, Alex started reading novels from East Asia such as The Godsfall Chronicles, City of Sin and Divine Throne of Primordial Blood, which inspired him with fresh ideas from a different philosophical and cultural perspective. He put his imagination to the page and had written five novels by the age of 23, when he was accepted onto (and completed) the Faber Academy Submissions and Editing Course.

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Nottingham based Gemma began her career working in an artist studio illustrating children’s books. The more books she worked on, the more she began to develop her own ideas, so she took the plunge and started writing her own books. The Storm is Gemma’s debut novel.

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Ellie White was born and raised in Sunderland and is a proud Mackem! She lives in Houghton-Le-Spring with her husband and two young children. She supports Sunderland AFC and is a lover of chocolate, rom-coms, musicals and Formula One.

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