We are proud to announce our forthcoming event on 16th May 2024: Chris d’Lacey in person at Phoenix Cinema and Art Centre, Phoenix Square, 4 Midland St, Leicester LE1 1TG or online via Zoom.
Chris d’Lacey is a children’s author with almost fifty books and short stories to his credit. He is best known for his middle-grade series ‘The Last Dragon Chronicles’, which has sold over four million copies and regularly featured on the New York Times bestseller lists.
What’s less well known is that he started his career as an unpublished member of Leicester Writers’ Club. On 16th May 2024, he will return to share some of his experiences – bad cover designs, difficult edits, life on the road for a working author, agents (he’s had four of them) that sort of thing. He’ll also answer a lot of questions.
Born in Malta, Chris grew up in Leicester and Bolton. After a biology degree, he worked at the University of Leicester as a scientist, of sorts. He was 32 before he wrote his first fiction, a 250,000 word Arctic saga, which is still sitting in a bottom drawer somewhere awaiting a redraft. He joined Leicester Writers’ Club after hearing about it at his local hairdressers! He initially wrote adult fiction, mainly short stories for magazines and competitions, before breaking into children’s fiction in the mid-nineties. His first children’s novel, ‘Fly, Cherokee, Fly’, was published in 1998 and highly commended for the Carnegie Medal, but it was the publication of ‘The Fire Within’ in 2001 that saw his career really take off. For over 20 years he was a frequent speaker at schools, libraries and literary festivals. In July 2002 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Leicester for his contributions to children’s literature.
Format for the evening will be an introductory interview hosted by Dave Martin, followed by Q&A. The event is free to members; £5 to visitors and non-members (for paid access online: register by sending a message to us at this website by 16/05/24).
leicesterwritersclub.com 