The Secret Forest by Sandra Dieckmann

Tracy Darnton is a keen reader and author of children’s and YA fiction, and a graduate of Bath Spa MA Writing for Young People, where she is now an Associate Lecturer.

Her latest novel Ready or Not is out in May 2022. It’s a thriller about a girl who goes missing during a game of hide-and-seek on holiday in Cornwall.

Her first YA novel The Truth About Lies is a thriller set on Dartmoor about a girl who remembers everything. Described by the Guardian as “thought-provoking and crisply written…an assured and charismatic debut”, The Truth About Lies was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2019.

Tracy won the YA Short Story Prize run by Stripes and the Bookseller and was published in I’ll Be Home for Christmas. Her short story became the basis of her YA novel, The Rules, published in 2020, about a girl on the run from her prepper dad. Described by the FT as a “heart-thuddingly nervy thriller” , and The Irish Times said: “this tense, taut novel is chillingly believable”.

Tracy also enjoys writing for much younger children and a couple of picture books are being published shortly. She lives in a village near Bath.
Twitter @TracyDarnton