Tessa Barrie

Tessa Barrie was born in Harrogate, Yorkshire, and despite her parents uprooting her at the age of three and moving her down south, she is proud of her Yorkshire heritage.

Growing up, she recalls her family life being more Little House on the Prairie than The Waltons because her early years were fraught with drama. However, intermingled with all the emotional disruption, she remembers humour squeezing its way through the frayed feelings.

So, incorporating humour in her writing has become very important to her. She always tries to capture the fragility of human emotion and coat it with a little humour. It doesn’t take away the anguish but makes it more bearable.

Tessa believes that starting to write novels later in life has made her more determined. In June 2021, she self-published her debut novel, Just Say It, a bittersweet family saga. Her second novel, The Secret Lives of the Doyenne of Didsbrook, a quirky murder mystery, is good to go, and her third novel, with the working title Unbroken, is well underway.