Pru Heathcote began her working life in Hertfordshire as a local newspaper reporter – obits, weddings, Uncle George’s Kiddies’ Corner – then went on to teenage magazines (Fab and Rave) and women’s magazines. She moved to Northumberland forty years ago and worked as an adult education tutor, teaching any subject she didn’t need a qualification for, including creative writing. Over the years she has written dozens of stories for magazines, a commissioned biography, and several plays, one of which was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe. It was one of her plays that formed the basis for her debut novel Don’t Leave, the winning entry in the 2020 Lindisfarne Prize, written during the first Lockdown.’ Pru is married, with three grown-up children and two grandchildren. She lives in Warkworth, a village on the Northumberland coast, an area that provides most of the inspiration for her stories.