Marguerite Valentine

Childhood experiences  of  living in both England and Wales, have been major influences to my writing . Differences in both the urban and rural landscape, the social environment, accents, and the people, I still find fascinating and continue to contribute in one way or another to my stories.

Living in London I initially worked with children and young people as a Child Protection Social worker. This brought me face to face with a side of life many prefer to avoid. But it also motivated me to understand more about what drives people and why they are the way they are. A curiosity which  subsequently led to my training as an analytic  psychotherapist.

Therapy is fundamentally about careful listening and making sense of what shapes  an understanding of life and the world. Moved and intrigued by the lives of those I worked with, I began to write.  At first, these were academic papers, [listed on this website]  moving onto  film analysis, before finally turning to fiction. This seemed a natural progression and a more accessible way of reaching an audience.

My debut novel , ‘Between the Shadow and the Soul‘ is about the long term effects of childhood trauma. The story focuses on the life of Flori, a fragile young woman, whose traumatic history drives her to steal a baby as an attempt to escape a tragic past .

My second novel ‘My name is Echo’ is also influenced by my work as a psychotherapist. The story explores the difficulties in growing up. Echo has familiar problems, which many working with young women will recognise; a negative relationship with her mother, an absent father, fears about how she looks, and ‘falling in love.’ As with my first book, it is written as a psychological thriller, but with the added elements of magical realism.

‘Truth and Lies‘ is a sequel to ‘Between the Shadow and Soul‘. The baby Flori snatched, now grown up, has changed his name to Seb and works as an undercover agent.  Eventually, he meets Nixie, a political activist and working together they discover the network of corruption,which lies at the heart of government.The book explores  the motivation for lies and questions how, in some circumstances, lies and truth can be interchangeable.