Meet the Author

A place called home

When it comes to writing, many authors take inspiration from the places they’ve grown-up. This couldn’t be truer for children’s book author, Lucy Hope whose latest captivating book Wren is based right here in North Wales, on the wonderful island of Anglesey…

I was lucky enough to grow up in North Wales and my writing has been very much inspired by the dramatic landscape of the area where I spent my childhood.

My second book, Wren, is set in an ancient house overlooking the Menai Strait. The house seems to sing at night as if calling to someone, or something, far away. Twelve-year-old Wren lives with her pa, her brother Tudur, and Aunty Efa, who moved into the family house after the death of Wren’s mother in an accident that also left Aunty Efa paralysed and forever bound to her steam-powered wheelchair. When Wren’s Pa finds his daughter difficult to control he decides to enrol her

in the infamous Anglesey Institution for the Re-education of Young Women in a wing at the Beaumaris Gaol. Wren hastens her attempts to build a flying machine to escape and as she

begins work on her invention with the help of her friend Medwyn, she realises there is something very, very wrong with her house, and sets about unearthing a terrifying family secret that has been kept deeply buried for generations.

The story of Wren began with its setting on Anglesey. I’ve always loved the view across the Menai Strait towards the mountains of Snowdonia. There’s something magical about two vast land masses facing each other across a turbulent stretch of water, under the watchful gaze of the Menai Suspension Bridge. I’ve always felt a sense of Anglesey’s uniqueness, of stories still untold, of secrets lost in time under the waters of ‘the river’.

Wren’s unusual house was inspired by my old family house just outside Mold. The house I grew up in is an ancient place, with deep walls, a dark past and steeped in Welsh history! It was built around 1450, is heavily fortified,

with six-foot thick walls, battlements and even a dungeon! My brother lives there now and offers B&B to guests who are assured of a warmer welcome than visitors might have received in earlier, more troubled, times.

Even though I now live in London, I’ve always had a strong sense of my Welsh heritage. I’ve enjoyed researching my family history and was excited to find that Llewellyn the Great

or Llewellyn ap Ioworth was a many-greats grandfather. He probably has hundreds of thousands of descendants still in Wales, but I was excited by the discovery!

I like to think of Wren as my love letter to Wales, the place I still call home, even though I now live far away. I hope my young readers (or their parents) will love Wren, wherever they live in the world, and perhaps might even be drawn here to discover the dramatic landscape of North Wales for themselves! n

Wren by Lucy Hope published in October 2022 by Nosy Crow for ages 9+. The perfect read for the festive season, you can pick up your copy at all good book shops. If you’d like to hear more, Lucy will be at Take pART at Venue Cymru, Llandudno on the 14th and 15th January 2023.