GLENDA YOUNG, AUTHOR
ABOUT ME
Hello! I'm Glenda Young and I’ve loved writing stories since I was a child.
My bestselling northeast sagas and Scarborough cosy crimes are published by Headline.
I'm an award-winning short story writer.
And I've written TV tie-in books for ITV Coronation Street.
I was one of six finalists in the coveted Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais Comedy Award.
Plus, I have an unique claim to fame! I’m the creator of the first soap opera - Riverside - to appear in The People’s Friend, the longest running women’s magazine in the world. Riverside is now available as an audio drama and can you find out more here.
I live in the northeast where my saga novels are set in a coalmining village. The books have feisty heroines and are gritty, inspired by my love of soap opera with fabulous female characters! There's a lot of warmth and humour too. The sagas are standalone and you can read them in any order.
My books are in all bookshops and online at GlendaWrites.
They're also sold in every ALFA Leisureplex hotel in the UK with £1.50 per book donated to ALFA's charity, Re-engage. Read more on that here. Since January 2025, we've raised over £10,000 for the charity through my book sales alone.
I also write a trilogy of sagas beginning with The Toffee Factory Girls. These books are inspired by Horner's Toffee Factory and Dainty Dinah toffee of Chester-le-Street, County Durham and are set during WW1. The second in the series, Secrets of The Toffee Factory Girls is published in 2025. I am currently writing book three.
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During lockdown when I couldn't get out to research, I turned to crime!
My Scarborough cosy crimes were shortlisted in the Dead Good Readers' Awards 2022 for the Best New Crime Series in their New Kid on the Block category with Richard Osman and Val McDermid.
Discover the cosy crimes here.
I'm a proud member of the Crime Writers' Association, the Society of Authors and Sunderland Heritage Partnership.
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I do give talks and if you'd like me to speak to your group, please contact me.
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I’ve also built an impressive reputation as a short story writer. My short fiction has appeared in magazines including Take a Break, My Weekly, The People’s Friend, Best and newspapers including The Sunday Post, The Sun's Fabulous magazine, The Mirror and The Express.
A life-long fan of the soap opera Coronation Street, I’ve been commissioned by ITV to write official TV tie-In books about the show including Coronation Street: The Official Colouring Book; Deirdre: A Life on Coronation Street; A Perfect Duet -The Diary of Roy and Hayley Cropper, and I have written major updates to Coronation Street: The Novel and Coronation Street: The Complete Saga.
I run two Coronation Street fan websites. The Coronation Street Blog has been praised by the Manchester Evening News as 'Excellent' and 'Essential Reading for Street Fans'. I also run and own the internet's first and original Coronation Street fan website http://www.corrie.net, online since 1995.
I blog at Flaming Nora which I update regularly with news and events from my writing life
If you'd like to contact me or find out more, please do! The contact page is here.
Glenda