Former Devil’s Porridge Museum employee Laura Noakes, 29, has landed a two-title deal with HarperCollins Children’s.
And her first book, Cosima Unfortunate Steals a Star, will hit the shelves in May.
For the last two years, in her spare time, Laura, who has hypermobility spectrum disorder which causes joint dislocation and chronic pain, was pursuing her dream of becoming a published author.
“I was really into Twilight and Harry Potter as a teenager. I just wanted to write my own books,” she said.
“More recently I’d get up at 6am and then do an hour before I went to work. I’d write in the evenings for a couple of hours and write all weekend.”
Laura’s disability means she wears braces, knee supports and sometimes uses a walking stick. “I’ve loved children’s books all my life but I never really saw any disabled characters depicted as heroines. I knew I wanted to write a book with a disabled main character, and (title character) Cos has the same disability that I have,” she said.
Cosima Unfortunate Steals a Star follows five children with challenges who pull off a jewel heist in Victorian London.
“I’m really interested in disability history,” says Laura. “I found out about a little bit about the institutionalisation of disabled children, particularly during the Victorian era. That just gave me this idea about a gang of kids that could maybe pull off a jewel heist.
“I think there’s a real push at the moment in children’s literature to have more diversity, which is great.
“Most of my characters are disabled but that’s not actually the main focal point of the story; it’s just that it happens to be who they are. But they all work together and bring their different skills when they’re planning this heist.”
After signing with a literary agent, she secured a publisher earlier this year.
“I was so shocked. When you’ve dreamt of something for so long — I was 17 when I started and wouldn’t show anybody — to realise that’s actually going to happen was a bit mind-blowing,” said Laura.
She is already working on a sequel as a full-time author having left The Devil’s Porridge Museum in late September.
“I’m still so shocked it’s getting published,” she said. “The main thing for me is getting it into the hands of kids and them enjoying it. That would be the absolute dream.”
