A WIRRAL writer is launching her debut novel with an event at Blackwell's Bookshop. 

Emma Venables' new book, Fragments of a Woman, is set in Germany during World War Two, and offers "a nuanced and heartbreaking exploration of what it meant to be a woman living under National Socialist rule".

Wirral Globe:

Emma, 36, said: “Fragments of a Woman was written out of a frustration with the stereotypical representations of German women often found in National Socialist era fiction.

"I wanted to go beyond the accepted tropes, beneath the propaganda, and bring forgotten or long-ignored stories to the fore.

"My aim was to offer a deeper exploration of what it meant to be a woman during this time by examining the complexities of the situations they might have found themselves in. I hope I have done these stories justice.”

Emma's work has been widely published in magazines and journals. Her short story, Woman at Gunpoint, 1945 was a runner-up in the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize 2020. She has a PhD in Creative Writing and has taught at Royal Holloway, University of London and Liverpool Hope University.

Emma added that one of the writers she was most inspired by when she was growing up was Helen Forrester.

Forrester lived with her grandmother in Hoylake for a while, which is just down the road from where Emma lives.

In recent years, a blue plaque was put on the house she resided in. Emma couldn't seem to find it until one day last year when she was on a walk with her dog, Otto he followed his nose down a street and discovered it.

Emma said it was a "lovely moment of connection with a writing idol". 

On Friday, June 2 at 6pm, Emma will launch Fragments of a Woman (Aderyn Press, £8.99) at Blackwell's Liverpool in conversation with Melissa Raines from the University of Liverpool.

Tickets are free with refreshments served while seats need to be booked in advance via this link: https://bit.ly/launch-fragments