Helen Hollick's Website Blog: About Helen

After an exciting Lottery win on the opening night of the 2012 London Olympics, Helen Hollick moved from a North-East London suburb to an eighteenth-century farmhouse in North Devon, where she lives with her husband, adult daughter, farmer son-in-law and a variety of pets and animals, which include hens, ducks, geese, peacocks,moorland-bred Exmoor ponies and her daughter’s showjumpers. Her study overlooks part of the Taw Valley, where the main road runs from Exeter to Barnstaple, and back in the 1600s troops of the English Civil Wars marched to and from battle. There are several friendly ghosts sharing the house and farm, and Helen regards herself as merely a temporary custodian of the lovely old house, not its owner.

First accepted for publication in 1993, a week after her 40^th birthday, her passion has slightly altered from writing ‘historical fiction’ to her nautical adventure series, The Sea Witch Voyages, and her Cosy Mystery Jan Christopher series set in the 1970s, based on anecdotes from the thirteen years that she worked as a library assistant in a North London suburban public library and her life today in rural Devon.

Helen became a USA Today Bestseller with her historical novel, The Forever Queen (titled A Hollow Crown in the UK) the story of Anglo-Saxon Queen, Emma of Normandy. Her novel Harold the King (titled I Am The Chosen King in the US) explores the events that led to the 1066 Battle of Hastings, while her Pendragon’s Banner Trilogy, set in the fifth century, is widely acclaimed as a more historical version of the Arthurian legend, with no magic, Lancelot, Merlin or Holy Grail, but instead, the ‘what might have happened’ story of the boy who became a man, who became a king, who became a legend.

Helen has also contributed short stories to several anthologies, collaborating with other, well known, award-winning authors.

She has written three non-fiction books, Pirates: Truth and Tales, Life of A Smuggler in Fact and Fiction and with her daughter, Kathy, Ghoste Encounters: The Lingering Spirits of North Devon.

Recognised by her stylish hats, Helen attends conferences and book-related events when she can as a chance to meet her readers and social-media followers, although her ‘wonky eyesight’ as she describes her condition of Glaucoma, is becoming a little prohibitive for travel. At least her recent successful hip replacement has sorted out the arthritis!

Helen is a regular blogger, enthusiastically helping to promote new and established writers as guests and occasionally gets time to write.