Helen Yendall’s Writing Blog

I’m a writer and creative writing tutor, based in the Cotswolds (UK).

After many years spent writing short stories for women’s magazines I decided it was ‘now or never’ if I was ever going to write a novel.

Thanks to the RNA (Romantic Novelists’ Association)’s ‘New Writers’ Scheme’ and a successful application to the Kate Nash agency’s ‘Bookcamp Scheme’, which invited submissions from writers with a partially-finished novel, I got an agent (Kate Nash) and, subsequently, a 2-book deal from HQ (Harper Collins) in the summer of 2021.

My debut WW2 novel ‘A Wartime Secret’ (originally called ‘Maggie’s War’) was published in January 2022. One reviewer called it ‘Eastenders meets Downton Abbey’, which I rather like!

I am now represented by Robbie Guillory at Underline Literary Agency and my second WW2 novel, about the Women’s Timber Corps – ‘The Highland Girls at War’ – was published in November 2022.

The sequel and second in the series, ‘The Highland Girls on Guard’ is due for publication in March 2024.