Buckshaw author's debut novel Ink is up for top literary award

The award is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious accolades in the world of children’s books.

Alice’s debut novel is shortlisted in the Older Fiction category for her book Ink.

She said: “The news that Ink has been short-listed has stunned me.

“It is a huge honour and I could not be more thrilled.”

Ink is set in a dystopian world where every individual’s actions, deeds and significant moments are tattooed onto the skin for ever.

Alice tells the story of Leora who, upon her father’s death, discovers that his ink has

been edited.

She is determined to see her father remembered forever but she now wonders whether she ever knew him at all.

Penny Bullock from Waterstones in Preston said: “It’s always a thrill when awesome books get the attention they deserve but the icing on the cake is when they are written by an author from your area.

“Ink is a truly fabulous, deliciously wonderful book, deserving of all the praise heaped upon it and we couldn’t be more chuffed that it has been shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize.”

It was when her youngest child, Jemima, started school that Alice decided it was now or never and she sat down to try her hand at writing a book.

A year later and the mother of three was looking at the manuscript for Ink.

Alice studied theology before moving to Lancashire and starting a family. She is interested in the notions of death, afterlife and eternity, and the idea for her debut novel came after watching a documentary on Ancient Egyptian death rituals.

Ink is published by Scholastic and can be found in bookshop ebb & flo in Gillibrand Street, Chorley,

The Waterstones Children’s book prize, which is now in its fourteenth year, exists to reward and champion new and emerging talent in children’s books.

The winners will be announced at an evening reception at Waterstones Piccadilly in London, Europe’s largest bookshop, on Thursday, March 22.

Six books will compete within each category to be crowned category winner, with the three category winners then vying for the overall title of Waterstones Children’s Book of the Year 2018.

The winner of each category will receive £2,000, with the overall winner receiving an extra £3,000.