Sara Gaines

Sara Gaines works as a journalist for the Guardian website and says ‘I’ve tried confronting criminals, reporting in war-torn Sudan and even wing-walking on a bi-plane, but motherhood has been my biggest challenge.’

Her first novel MUMPOWER puts that challenge into focus as it unfolds the story of Sue Evans, who loses her job because her three-year-old son, Joe, is ill, and unwittingly but passionately becomes the leader of a national protest by working mothers. Sara Gaines’ territory is that of authors such as Allison Pearson and Maeve Haran, but hers is a fresh take set in a more grass-roots community in the Welsh town of Pontydare.

Sara lives with her husband Mark and children Jonathan and Chloe in Hertfordshire but her journalistic apprenticeship was spent in Wales, on Wales on Sunday and the South Wales Argus, and in 1997 she was named Welsh Feature Writer of the Year.