AUTHOR Rebecca Jenkins has been awarded £2,000 to help her write books, including two novels about a detective working in the North-East in the early 1800s.
The money will enable Miss Jenkins, daughter of the former Bishop of Durham, the Right Reverend David Jenkins, to concentrate on full-time writing at her home in Barnard Castle, County Durham.
Her fictional sleuth, FR Jarrett, first appeared in her book The Duke's Agent in 1997, and she is now planning two more on his adventures around the region.
One will be a murder mystery set in Teesdale, and the other will be a crime story that takes place around Hartlepool Docks.
The grant was awarded by New Writing North, an organisation set up to encourage authors by allowing them time to write.
Miss Jenkins said: "The money will come in very handy as I am extremely busy writing at the moment and cannot take time off to earn some money in other ways."
She is writing the final section of A Reluctant Celebrity, a biography of Fanny Kemble, a 19th Century actress and writer, which will be published next year.
She helped her father to write his autobiography, The Calling of a Cuckoo, which was published a year ago.
She said: "I am really grateful to New Writing North. It does excellent work to assist the region's writers."
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