ACTRESS Jill Halfpenny is coming to a Wirral for a book signing and in conversation event. 

Jill, who rose to fame as a teenager in the children's drama Byker Grove, has gone on to star in Eastenders, Coronation Street and Waterloo Road as well as winning the second series of Strictly Come Dancing in 2004

Her book, A Life Reimagined: My Journey Of Hope In The Midst Of Loss, will be published on June 20.

When Jill was four, her father died. He went to play his weekly game of five-a-side football, had a heart attack and never came home. In 2017, in cruelly similar circumstances, Jill’s partner Matt went to a gym class, suffered a cardiac arrest and never came home.

A spokesperson for publishers Macmillan said: "These two tragic events frame Jill’s story in Life Reimagined as she explores how she dealt with profound grief as a child and teenager and then later in life as a partner and mother.

"When Matt died, Jill committed to processing her grief in ways she hadn’t attempted before: she had to rebuild her father, recreate that grief and lose him all over again. She explored the physiology of grief, attended grief retreats, read every book out there and underwent extensive therapy.

"A Life Reimagined is Jill’s space to share what she has learnt – both about herself and about how we view grief as a society – in the hope that she can help readers feel like they can start to put one foot in front of the other and feel hopeful about life again."

An evening with Jill Halfpenny in conversation is on June 24 at The Neston Club at 7pm. Tickets cost £23 for a book and ticket are available from linghams.co.uk