About Phyllida Shrimpton
Author by the Water

The author behind the stories…

I dreamt of being a writer like many writers do, only in my case I literally dreamt the plot of my first novel, Sunflowers in February, at the age of 15. It took me many years to find the courage to turn this dream into a book, but when I did, I am delighted to say that it won the Scottish Schools RED Book Award 13 and was shortlisted for the 2019 Centurion Award. It was enough to keep me writing.

I now write adult contemporary fiction and, as an ode to my first novel, I always include a mention to my favourite flower, the sunflower. It keeps its face to the sun and searches for shapes in the clouds…much like me 🌻

Read My Books

Embracing the world of uplifting contemporary fiction

Phyllida Shrimpton:

I live an ordinary life…more or less.

I have a house in Essex by the water where I live with my husband, my daughter, my big, grey, fuzzy rescue cat called Luna and a 50 year old rescue tortoise called Womble. I am a mother, step-mother, paddle boarder, hiker, coffee guzzler and beer swigger - plus I can still do a handstand at the age of 60!

I have lived in a variety of places, London, the Cotswolds, The Netherlands, and have met a great many people. Whether or not I can do a handstand then, it is unsurprising that I have come across a fair amount of situations. This is why I have picked uplifting fiction as my writing genre of choice - or maybe it picked me, who knows. What I do know, however, is that with adversity often a flower blooms, and that is worth writing about.

Some of the lovely things that writing has brought me as an author

Sunflowers in February wins the Red Book Awards - Scotland

Read, Enjoy, Debate - Falkirk Council’s Book Award for Secondary Schools

Sunflowers in February shortlisted for the Centurion Book Awards for students in Bath and South East Somerset

I attended the awards ceremony at Downside School and enjoyed a day of Q&A’s with the students and other shortlisted authors and had a fantastic day.

An Invitation to be on the panel at the Young Adult Literary Convention, London

I had great fun at YALC on the panel with other authors discussing all things bookish. As it was part of the London Comicon event it was even more fun when Jason Momoa (Aquaman) walked past followed by David Tennant…

Every Shade of Happy shortlisted for the Holyer an Gof Cornish Awards Scheme

This multigenerational story certainly caught the eye of the Bards of Gorsedh Kernow who promote books about Cornwall and I was extremely proud to be shortlisted for this award as my own uncle was a Cornish Bard.