Local lass does good - Glenda Young award-winning short story writer and novelist
We'ar shining the light reporters met with Glenda Young and asked her to tell us about herself.
Glenda has loved writing stories ever since she was a child, and has an 11 book deal with Headline to write sagas plus a three book deal with Headline to write cosy crimes set in a Scarborough B&B.
Glenda lives in Sunderland where her saga novels are set in the coalmining village of Ryhope, where she was born and bred. You don't need to know Ryhope to enjoy the books, which have a feisty, young heroine at their core. The novels are gritty sagas, inspired by her love of soap opera, really dramatic with lots of action and some wonderful female characters! There's a lot of warmth and humour too. All of the sagas are standalone, and you can read them in any order.
​Glenda's Scarborough cosy crimes were shortlisted in the Dead Good Readers' Awards 2022 for the Best New Crime Series in their New Kid on the Block category and were up against Richard Osman and Val McDermid. Find out more about the cosy crimes here.
Glenda has a unique claim to fame! She's the creator of the first ever weekly soap opera Riverside to appear in The People's Friend, the longest running women's magazine in the world. Riverside is now available as an audio drama and you can find out more here.
Glenda's short fiction has appeared in magazines including Take a Break, My Weekly, The People's Friend, Best and newspapers including The Sunday Post, The Mirror and The Express.
A life-long fan of the soap opera Coronation Street, Glenda was commissioned by ITV to write official TV tie-In books about the show including Coronation Street: The Official Colouring Book; Deirdre: A Life on Coronation Street; A Perfect Duet -The Diary of Roy and Hayley Cropper, and has written major updates to Coronation Street: The Novel and Coronation Street: The Complete Saga.
GIenda is a very busy woman and runs two Coronation Street fan websites. The Coronation Street Blog has been praised by the Manchester Evening News as 'Excellent' and 'Essential Reading for Street Fans'.
When asked what makes Sunderland so special to Glenda, she said: "People are down to earth, we have a wonderful coast and people are friendly and lots of community groups."
Glenda has signed up to become an ageing well ambassador for our city, if you want to know more go here: https://www.sunderland.gov.uk/ageingwell
Competition: Win a set of 8 books
Question: Name the hotel that Glenda's cosy crimes are set in?
The answer can be found at Glenda's website glendayoungbooks.com
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