Sarah Dodd (PhD Biological Sciences, 1994, Graduate) tells how she loved the surrounding landscapes of Lancaster University so much that she used them as a backdrop to her recently published debut middle grade novel Keeper of Secrets where main character, Emily seeks to protect an orphaned lynx.

"I arrived in Lancaster to do my PhD in 1991, having chosen my destination mainly because of its location and proximity to the Lake District. Having been brought up in Lancashire and Cumbria and done my first degree in Nottingham, it was lovely to be back in the north with its varied landscapes and…er…rain!

My PhD in the Biological Sciences department (now superseded by the Lancaster Environment Centre) was about the effects of climate change on native plant species. I spent a lot of time peering at daisy leaves under microscopes and crouching in the futuristic ‘Solardomes’ at the Field Station (which used to be where InfoLab21 is now) from dawn until dusk, taking measurements. The only writing I did at that time was scientific, formal reporting and discussion, but I had always done a lot of creative writing when I was younger and my supervisor, Professor Terry Mansfield, was a great encouragement. He told me that I had a gift for writing, even though at that point he had only seen it in the form of a thesis.

Weekends were spent either in the Lake District or around the marvellous Morecambe Bay, in Silverdale or Arnside. This area is designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and it’s not difficult to see why. No surprise, then, that when I did find time to write something other than my PhD thesis, I was inspired to write poetry.

After graduation, I trained to be a primary school teacher and stayed in Lancaster to begin my career. After a short sojourn to Australia, I came back with a family and have lived here ever since. When I started seriously writing children’s novels and sending them off to agents and publishers, the ones that gained most attention were set in this area – one in Troutbeck, two in Arnside and, at last, after seventeen years of trying and persevering and coping with all the rejections, my debut middle grade (age 9-12) novel, Keeper of Secrets, was published by the award-winning Firefly Press.

Set in a fictionalised version of Silverdale in the depths of winter, it’s a snowy animal mystery about grief and loneliness, with the background of a conservation project to rewild lynx in the UK. This is a proposal which is actually under consultation in Scotland and Northumberland at the moment so it’s highly topical. The book doesn’t come down in favour of one view or another, but presents a rich array of characters – the ecologist, the sheep farmer, the land owner, the artist – who all help or hinder the main character, eleven-year-old Emily, as she seeks to protect an orphaned lynx kitten from the illegal hunter who killed its mother. But the Lancashire landscape is arguably the star of the show in all its challenging yet comforting wildness. Definitely a book to read on a cold winter’s day with a mug of hot chocolate and a box of tissues handy.

Landscape and nature are so inspirational to me - if I hadn’t come to Lancaster, who knows if I would ever have realised my dream of being a published author? And I never would have guessed, when I arrived here one wet October, that I would still be here thirty Octobers later! "