Alis Hawkins

Writer of the Teifi Valley Coroner series set in mid-nineteenth century west Wales, Alis Hawkins grew up on a dairy farm in Cardiganshire. Her inner introvert thought it would be a good idea to become a shepherd and, frankly, if she had, she might have been published sooner.

As it was, three years reading English at Oxford revealed an extrovert streak and a social conscience which sent her off to train as a Speech and Language Therapist.

She has spent the subsequent three decades variously working in a burger restaurant, as a therapist, bringing up two sons, working with homeless people and helping teachers and families to understand their autistic children. And writing. Always. Nonfiction (autism related), plays (commissioned for production in heritage locations) and, of course, novels.

Initially fascinated by the medieval period, she began her crime and mystery career at Pan Macmillan with a historical novel set during the fourteenth century then fast-forwarded to 1850s West Wales to fulfill a long-held desire to write a book based on Wales’s best kept historical secret: the Rebecca Riots. But she fell in love – both with nineteenth century west Wales and her characters – and the result is the Teifi Valley Coroner crime series featuring visually impaired investigator, Harry Probert-Lloyd, and his chippy assistant, John Davies. The series currently consists of None So Blind, In Two Minds (shortlisted for the CWA Sapere Historical Dagger, 2020) and Those Who Know. She is currently working on the fourth, whose working title is Not One Of Us.

Now living with her partner on the Welsh/English border, Alis speaks Welsh, collects rucksacks and can’t resist an interesting fact.

Fun fact: In 1977, Alis was the winner of the under 16s stockjudging competition at the Cardiganshire Federation of Young Farmers Rally. She loves cows…