“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

Maya Angelou

Based in London but from the shoe-making mecca of Northampton, Hillery still smiles at the memory of childhood summers spent with relatives in the capital, where she marvelled at speedy ‘home’ accents and copious amounts of peppered soups.

Having worked in the creative industry for many years, she fulfilled a long-held dream and returned to education, gaining an MA (with Distinction) in Creative, Digital and Professional Writing and a BA (with First Class Honours) in Film and Television Studies.

A Name In History, Hillery’s debut novel, was formulated during her writing studies, and she hopes the story will resonate with everyone curious about our connected pasts, particularly with those who lost the anchors to their history when ancestors’ names and the very essence of being were removed for the sake of skewed beliefs.