Judi Daykin

I was born in Wakefield and grew up in the village of Ackworth during the 1960s and 70s.  From an early age, I was attracted to performing, and by the age of twelve, I was determined to become an actor. Unfortunately, that ambition was derailed by love! A move to Norfolk in 1981, followed by the advent of a family made sure that I was amply occupied. I began to write when my children were small. Afternoon naps were a much encouraged tiny window in which I tried to write short stories and articles, which occasionally got published. 

Ever a later starter, I joined the magnificent Open University in my late twenties. After seven long years, partitioning my day between working full-time, two children and study, I finally managed to get my degree in History and Art History. A year later, I left my job in computing and went to London to train as a professional actor, twenty years after I had originally dreamed of doing so. It’s never too late!! Since then, I’ve been proud to call myself a working actor. For two decades, I’ve been maintaining a portfolio career that spans acting, medical roleplay, promoting, directing and running my own theatre company, Broad Horizons. My husband also works in the theatre, so there’s never a dull moment in our household. 

We moved out of Norwich to a cottage in a small village in North Norfolk in the late 1990s, and I love the beautiful, vast skies and watery landscapes that surround us. It feels wonderfully remote, even though the nearest town is only a few miles away. I can’t imagine living anywhere better than this.

There was one final ambition which I had yet to fulfil. Thankfully, the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich runs one of the most prestigious creative writing programmes in the country. I was very grateful that they invited me onto their MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) in 2017. I graduated from the course in 2019, and my debut novel was shortlisted for the Little, Brown UEA writer’s prize that autumn. 

That novel was “Under Violent Skies”. It was published in September 2020 by one of the UK’s leading indie publishers, Joffe Books. I so proud to be invited to join Jasper and his team. Their support and care over my novels is a true joy. I know that both Sara and myself could not be in better hands.