Graduate in final of Brit Awards 2010
Psychology graduate Julie Noble is a finalist in the first ever Brit Awards 2010 for the top seven unpublished novelists in the UK.
Her novel “Talli’s Secret” has won her an invitation to attend a gala night at the O2 Arena in London on July 15 where the winners will be announced in the finals of the Brit Awards Unpublished. This is the largest creative writing contest in the UK, with a prize of £10,000 for the overall winner, selected from 21,000 entries in nine categories.
Julie said: “I have been hoping for this moment for so long and now I am part terrified and part elated. I have been writing since I was seven years old - and I have always dreamed, hoped and longed for a chance like this, and now I am being given it- hurray!”
Her novel “Talli’s Secret” is about a girl whose classroom experiences are close to her son's. The heroine Cassie Edwards suffers from undiagnosed dyspraxia and dyslexia and is bullied at school. Her life is changed on a visit to Haworth Parsonage, the home of the Brontes, where she meets a mysterious figure.
One of Julie’s five children also suffers from both conditions, and her novel was acclaimed by both the Bronte Society and the Dyspraxia Foundation after she published it herself in 2004. The novel is also very popular with schools and health professionals and features on a recommended reading list for children with special needs.
She has also won an annual short story competition in the monthly magazine She, with her story “Sands in Time”, which will be published in the August issue.
Julie has been writing since the age of seven and said that her psychology degree had helped give her an insight into character.
“My degree course gave me a lifelong fascination with the way perception is affected by experience and education. I also did literature as a minor subject and that was a joy. It is great that Lancaster offers this opportunity to broaden your studies.”
She currently writes inbetween looking after five children aged from two to 20 and is determined to make writing her career.
“I bought a notebook when I was seven and I have been sending pieces for publication since I was 14 years old. I have masses of ideas and look forward to getting them into print in the years to come.”