Louise Fein

Louise was born and brought up in London. She harboured a secret love of writing from a young age, preferring to live in her imagination than the real world.

After a law degree, Louise worked in Hong Kong and Australia, travelling for a while through Asia and North America before settling back to a working life in London. She finally gave in to the urge to write, taking an MA in creative writing, and embarking on her first novel, People Like Us (named Daughter of the Reich in the US and Canada edition). The novel was inspired by the experience of her father's family, who escaped from the Nazis and arrived in England as refugees in the 1930's. The book was published in summer 2020 in ebook, audio and hardback, and in March 2021 in paperback, and is being translated into eleven foreign languages.

Louise's second novel, The Hidden Child, will be published both in the UK and the US/Canada in September 2020. She is currently working on her third novel.

The Winchester Writers’ Festival was a key moment in her journey to published author. Following a few agent rejections, she met two agents at the 2018 Festival to get feedback on her submission package. Both agents liked her submission and asked to see more of her novel. This was the confidence boost she needed. She sent the novel not only to them but to more agents after their encouragement and signed with her agent later that year, receiving publishing deals in the UK and US in February 2019. She also found the talks and other events at the festival to be very useful.