Debbie Young
ALLi Author Member
Location: United Kingdom
Genres: Advice & How To, Humour, Memoir, Self-Help/Personal Development, Writing & Publishing, Commercial Fiction, General Fiction, Literary Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Short/Flash Fiction Collection, Womens Fiction, Cosy Mystery, Contemporary Fiction
Debbie Young writes warm, witty, feel-good fiction and helpful, friendly non-fiction. She is a UK Ambassador for ALLi, one of the authors of ALLi's Successful Self-publishing guide books, and was Manager of ALLi's Author Advice Center from 2013-2019. Her nine-book cozy crime series, the Sophie Sayers Village Mysteries, is set in an English Cotswold village similar to the one in which she has lived for over 30 years, and its heroine is an aspiring writer - and a bookseller as the love interest! Running the course of the village year from one summer to the next (and then a bit more!), it has been described by a reviewer as "Miss Marple meets Bridget Jones". The seventh book in the series, "Murder Lost and Found", was shortlisted for the 2021 Selfies Award, given for the best independently-published adult fiction in the UK. Her four-book Gemma Lamb Cozy Mystery series follows the course of an academic year at /St Bride's, a quirky English girls' boarding school from the perspective of an English teacher. The first in the series, "Dastardly Deeds at St Bride's" (originally published as "Secrets at St Bride's"), was shortlisted for The Bookbrunch Selfies Award 2020. This series is a mash-up of romantic comedy, mystery and satire. "Secrets at St Bride's" was shortlisted for the 2020 Selfies Award. In her four-book Cotswold Curiosity Shop series, starting with "Death at the Old Curiosity Shop", each mystery revolves around an item to be found in Alice Carroll's bric-a-brac shop. It has been a consistent bestseller on Amazon. Her Tales from Wendlebury Barrow series of quick reads (about 12-15k each) is a spin-off from the Sophie Sayers series and also introduces St Bride's. So far it includes "The Pride of Peacocks" (available exclusively to members of her Readers' Club, which can be joined via her author website) and "The Natter of Knitters", and "The Clutch of Eggs". She has also contributed many Sophie Sayers short stories to anthologies, such as "Everyday Kindness" edited by L J Ross, and 2024 published a festive collection of shorts set in the same world, "Christmas with Sophie Sayers". She has also published the romantic comedy novella, "Mrs Morris Changes Lanes", and four collections of short stories, "Marry in Haste", "Stocking Fillers", "Quick Change", and "Christmas with Sophie Sayers", which reviewers describe as "very English, very subtle, very clever", "fun and very funny", and "full of tiny gems, bringing the extraordinary out of the everyday". Her short stories have been compared to those of Roald Dahl and Charles Dickens, and published in various anthologies. She has frequently been co-judge the acclaimed Stroud Short Stories competition and has twice been invited to read her work at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. In 2025 she accepted the challenge to write murder mystery playscripts for her local amateur dramatic group, resulting in productions of "The Importance of Being Murdered" in 2025 and "Murder at the Office" in 2026. The first of these has also been turned into a novel of the same name. She has also published four collections of the monthly columns she has written about village life for two local magazines. She is the founder and director of the ground-breaking Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival (founded 2015). She is a frequent guest on local and community radio, and for several years was a regular panelist on BBC Radio Gloucestershire's monthly Book Club. Debbie is a passionate advocate for reading for pleasure, for public libraries and for independent bookshops. She is an active supporter of the British children's reading charity Read for Good (www.readforgood.org) and the global Little Free Library scheme (there's a Little Free Library in her front garden). She is also an ambassador for the Type 1 diabetes charity JDRF and has written and self-published a short memoir about family life with diabetes for that cause. In 2022, she licensed various English-language rights for her novels to the award-winning publisher Boldwood Books and audiobook specialist Saga Egmont. She also has contracts for German, Russian, Italian, and Japanese translations. As a journalist, she has contributed features and articles on self-publishing to magazines such as "Mslexia" and "Romance Matters". She shares her considerable self-publishing knowledge and experience as a course tutor for Jericho Writers, teaching a twice-yearly intensive course called "Simply Self-publish" in spring and autumn. She welcomes opportunities to speak at live and online events about any aspect of her writing life.
Debbie Young's books
Genres: Cosy Mystery
Sophie and Hector are heading to the Highlands. For Sophie it’s a trip home and for Hector it’s time to meet Sophie’s parents... Though their trip has village tongues wagging about a stop at Scotland’s notorious elopement spot, Gretna Green. No matter what, it’ll make a nice break from the murder and mayhem that has been plaguing their beautiful Cotswolds village. But Sophie and Hector are barely across the border on the way to Inverness before a sinister encounter leaves them shaken. Then comes a series of mishaps that leave poor Hector a little worse for wear. Is someone after Hector? Why is he certain the attacks are just accidents? Sophie is determined to find out. Starting and finishing at the Hector's House bookshop in Wendlebury Barrow, this adventure is Debbie Young's celebration of Scotland as her second favourite place after the Cotswolds, and will make you feel as if...
Genres: Cosy Mystery
When a mysterious stranger interrupts Sophie Sayers' Nativity play to accuse the whole village of murdering a baby, Sophie Sayers' imagination runs wild, as usual, not helped by the surprise arrival of her ex-boyfriend just as her new romance with charming local bookseller Hector Munro was starting to hot up. What secrets is the stranger hiding, and whose baby is it anyway? Can Sophie hang on to Hector without driving Damian into the unsuitable arms of Carol, the aging eccentric proprietor of the village shop? With the help of her new-found friends in Wendlebury Barrow, she's going to give it her best shot...
Genres: Cosy Mystery
Just when Sophie Sayers is starting to feel at home in the Cotswold village of Wendlebury Barrow, a fierce new vicar arrives, quickly offending her and everyone else he meets. Banning the villagers’ Halloween celebrations seems the last straw, particularly when he instead revives the old English Guy Fawkes’ tradition with a bonfire piled high with sinister effigies. And what dark secret is he hiding about her boss, the beguiling bookseller, Hector Munro? Whose body is found outside the village bookshop? Not to mention the one buried beneath the vicar’s bonfire. For fans of cosy mysteries everywhere, Sophie’s second adventure will have you laughing out loud as you try to solve the mystery before she does, in the company of engaging new characters, as well as familiar favourites from "Best Murder in Show". (Originally self-published as "Trick or Murder?", now published by Boldwood Books as "Murder at the Vicarage")
Genres: Cosy Mystery
When Sophie Sayers inherits a cottage in a sleepy English Cotswold village, she’s hoping for a quieter life than the one she's running away from. What she gets instead is a dead body on a carnival float, and an extraordinary assortment of suspects. Is the enigmatic bookseller Hector Munro all he seems? And what about the over-friendly neighbour who brings her jars of honey? Not to mention the eccentric village shopkeeper, show committee, writers' group and drama club, all suspiciously keen to welcome her to their midst. For fans of cosy (cozy) mysteries everywhere, Best Murder in Show will make you laugh out loud at the idiosyncrasies of English country life, and rack your brains to discover the murderer before Sophie can. If you love M C Beaton's Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth series, you'll enjoy Sophie Sayers' adventures. "A cracking example of cosy crime" - Katie Fforde, internationally bestselling...
Genres: Essays
This collection of humorous short essays combines affection for the timeless values of community life in an English village with a nostalgia for aspects that are quietly slipping away. Easy to dip into, this light-hearted volume provides entertaining reading for anyone interested in modern English rural community life, wherever they live. Written between 1991 and 2015, most of these essays first appeared in the Hawkesbury Parish News, the community newspaper for Hawkesbury Upton, the Cotswold village in which Debbie Young has lived for the last 25 years. Very active in village life, she is founder of the annual Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival.
Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Romance, Short/Flash Fiction Collection, Womens Fiction
These 15 warm, witty short stories take an affectionate look at the institution of marriage, offering five gentle tales about each of the following stages: seeking a partner, committing to marriage, and surviving the long haul. Each story involves different characters, from single girls seeking Mr Right, to couples struggling with the technicalities of actually getting hitched, to long-wedded couples who have plenty of time to repent at leisure. Although most of the stories are told from a female perspective, this is far from being a feminist rant, but is rather a gentle celebration of matrimony - provided you find the right partner, plan the wedding your way, and find ways to live together long-term, despite each other's foibles. From the author Debbie Young, reknowned for her sharp observational British humour, underpinned by a cheery optimism and a heart of gold, this little book will be a great engagement, wedding,...
Genres: Short/Flash Fiction Collection
A light-hearted, old-fashioned short story for the festive season. Find out what happens when a new young Queen, bored of wild boar, challenges her huntsmen to find a new dish fit for the royal Christmas feast. Is this tale the real reason that we eat turkey at Christmas? Probably not, as I made it all up.
Genres: Health & Fitness
A personal account of how the author's family came to terms with the diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes for both husband and daughter, this book was written for three purposes: - to encourage other families affected by this serious lifelong medical condition to rebuild their lives after diagnosis - to make the wider community aware of the challenge of living with Type 1 Diabetes - to raise money for research into a cure for Type 1 Diabetes All profits from the sales of this short e-book will be donated to JDRF, the leading charitable funder of research into better therapy and a cure for Type 1 Diabetes. Additional donations may also be made via the link at the end of the book (http://www.jdrf.org.uk/donateyoung). All those involved in the production of this book have generously given their services free of charge in order to maximise the funds raised for JDRF, including...
Genres: Cosy Mystery
Formats: E-Book, Paperback
Flash fiction, sudden fiction, microfiction, ultra short fiction - call them what you will, these twenty wry and witty short stories examine change at every stage of life, in a natural progression from birth to death. Mostly lighthearted, but often moving too, this collection is written with an admirable economy of style. Ranging from a spartan 100 words to the relative luxury of 1,000, they combine sharp observation of contemporary English life with gentle humour, profound affection for the social quirks of the author's native country, and the odd dark rumbling undertone. Plenty of surprises emerge along the way, from twists of magical realism to whimsical wish-fulfillment.