Author treasures her place on award list
AN AUTHOR who gives the period drama genre a more diverse twist has been shortlisted for an international book award.
Marianne Ratcliffe, 52, from Broken Cross, has been nominated for a Lambda Literary Award for her latest novel A Lady to Treasure.
She hopes to win in the lesbian romance category when she travels to a ceremony that takes place in New York on June 11.
Her story features American Louisa Silverton, who is the daughter of a wealthy businessman, who travels to England to find a rich husband and help her dad’s ailing company.
But she meets freespirited Sarah Davenport and, while she finds love, it is not in the way her father intended.
Marianne said: “To be shortlisted for such a prestigious award, previous winners include Sarah Waters and Jeannette Winterson, is beyond my wildest expectations.
“A Lady to Treasure carries a special place in my heart and is inspired by the Regency novels of Jane Austen, which provided comfort and escape when I was a young adult coming to terms with being gay.
“I wanted to recreate the wit, humour and understated passion that I love so much about Austen’s work, but in a story where the central love story was between two women.”
Marianne, who lives with her wife Sharon and their two dogs, had previously worked as a biochemist.
And when she was made redundant in 2017 she swapped writing medical reports for novels, having taken a creative writing course in her 30s.
Following several selfpublished books, Marianne released her first via a publishing company, Bellows Press, in 2022 and it was entitled The Secret of Matterdale Hall.
A Lady to Treasure has already received critical acclaim and, whatever the result in New York, Marianne will always look on her latest book fondly.
She said: “Authors talk about certain books being the ‘book of their heart’ and A Lady to Treasure is exactly that to me.”
Signed copies of the book are available from Waterstones, in Macclesfield. Marianne has thanked the store for its support with her novels.
The Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the Lammys, celebrate LGBTQ+ storytelling.
“I wanted to recreate the wit, humour and understated passion that I love so much about Austen’s work.”