Sara's story for St Oswald's

A writer whose story for young adults was written in a bid to lure her own teenagers off social media, has chosen to support St Oswald’s through sales of the book.

Mother of two Sara Wilcox, who grew up in Whitley Bay but now lives in London, decided to donate all royalties from the sale of Serious History – a story of strong female characters who stumble upon a criminal conspiracy – to St Oswald’s Hospice.

Sara’s family have supported the hospice for many years, and she hit upon the idea of using her novel to raise funds when she heard the hospice had launched an emergency appeal in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sara said:

I suffer from an auto-immune condition has confined me to the house and rules out other ways to help in the current crisis, such as volunteering for the NHS or helping out vulnerable neighbours. However I am very keen to help in any way I can, and decided to donate the royalties from my book sales to the hospice.

 

I know just how hard it is to entertain young adults during lockdown without a 24/7 attachment to their phones. My children inspired me to write as I was bored with hearing myself imploring my own children to ‘get off social media and gaming and read something. My kids actually parted with their devices long enough to enjoy the book so I’m sure other young people would appreciate it too.

Sara describes her novel as a humorous crime novel for younger teenagers, like ‘Nancy Drew for the 2020s.’ Serious History, which Sara even designed the cover for, sees the central young women characters landed in danger during research into a new housing development being built on the site of an ancient monastery near their school.

All royalties from its sales will go to St Oswald’s Covid-19 appeal to help recoup funds lost through our closed charity shops and postponed fundraising events. We would like to say a big thank you to Sara for choosing to support us in this way.

Serious History can be bought – or read – online at Completely Novel for £5.99 plus postage and packaging, or from Amazon.