Hello and welcome to my website. I’m Dawn Brookes, an award winning English novelist and memoirist living in Derby. I hold an MA in Creative Writing with distinction, and I’m the founder of a local literature festival, plus The All Things Books Show on my YouTube channel.
I write most days and publish regularly. I’m passionate about being an Indie author and encouraging others to achieve their creative ambitions whatever they may be.
Thank you for visiting.
If you are interested in my Rachel Prince novels click here.
If you are interested in my Carlos Jacobi novels click here.
If you are interested in the Lady Marjorie mystery series click here.
If it’s a memoir you’re after click here.
For my children’s books click here.
Below are my bios. Short, medium and ‘kitchen sink’ lengths depending on how much you want to know!
In Brief
Dawn Brookes is an award winning and occasional international bestselling author. Dawn is also founder of a local literature festival in Oakwood, Derby and a YouTube show called The All Things Books Show.
Born in Nottingham and raised in Leicester, she moved south when she was twenty-two, living in London and Berkshire before returning to the Midlands where she now lives with her rescue Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.
When not writing about her nursing years, cooking up murder plots or writing for children, Dawn spends time reading, listening to music, gardening, exploring with her godson, and walking. She also takes time out to cruise regularly. She holds an MA in Creative Writing with distinction.
I believe there are no limits to what a person can achieve if they set their mind to it, no matter what background we are born into, we should not be restrained by boundaries. Dawn Brookes
Bio More Detail
Dawn Brookes writes and publishes contemporary clean crime fiction, nursing memoirs and children’s picture books (for 3-7 year olds).
Her novels fit into the cosy mystery (cozy if you’re in the US), amateur sleuth, or classic crime genres. Being cosy, they are by their very nature clean with no graphic violence and don’t contain swearing, but that doesn’t mean they lack suspense or contain shallow characters.
Dawn’s memoirs thus far consist of three books outlining her experiences of nurse training from 1977- 1984 as she took the long route to becoming a Registered Nurse. They are set in Leicester, London’s East End and Berkshire!
Dawn’s children’s books always contain some element of nature (except in the Bible stories for children), as Dawn is passionate about nature and the environment.
Dawn was born in Nottingham and raised in Leicester in the East Midlands of England. She moved to London in 1981, and travelled around Asia for three months in 1982 before moving to Berkshire to undertake further nurse training. She later became a midwife, district nurse, lecturer/practitioner and community matron before deciding it was time to leave the NHS permanently.
Dawn is now a self-employed writer who independently publishes through her own imprints, Dawn Brookes Publishing and Oakwood Publishing.
Kitchen Sink Bio
Dawn completed an MA in Creative Writing and passed with distinction, finishing it during lockdown in 2020. She is proud to be the author of the Hurry up Nurse series of memoirs, the hugely popular Rachel Prince mystery series, the Lady Marjorie mystery series, and the Carlos Jacobi PI crime fiction novels.
The cozy crime series’ combine a unique blend of murder, cruising, travel and medicine, and a sprinkling of romance.
Dawn has a 39 year nursing pedigree and still takes regular cruise holidays for research purposes (so she says!). She likes to think she brings these passions along with a love of clean crime to her writing.
The surname of the Rachel Prince protagonist is in honour of a childhood dog, ‘Prince’, who used to put his head on her knee while she lost herself in books. Lady Marjorie and Carlos Jacobi are both spinoffs of this original series.
Dawn worked in the NHS in England for the best part of thirty-nine years. Her initial training was in Leicester in the late 1970s and this training was the focus of her first memoir – Hurry up Nurse: memoirs of nurse training in the 1970s. This book was a consistent kindle bestseller in the USA and at times in the UK during 2018 and 2019.
Dawn moved to London in 1980 to undertake a specialist cardio-thoracic nurse training course, working at the London Chest Hospital in Bethnal Green. Her time in London is covered in the second memoir – Hurry up Nurse 2: London calling.
In-between training, Dawn travelled around Asia for three months in 1982 before moving to a town in Berkshire where she spent the next twenty-two years working as a nurse, midwife and district nurse.
Training as a midwife in 1986, she later worked as a sister on the labour ward until 1990. After this she worked for a couple of years in the pharmaceutical industry as a research nurse. A few years later she trained as a district nurse, obtaining a BA (Hons) in Community Health Studies at the University of Reading while working in East Berkshire. Continuing to work as a district nursing sister, Dawn completed an MA Education in health and social care and later worked as a lecturer/practitioner, spending one day a week teaching at the University of Reading and four days as a district nursing sister.
Dawn’s father became unwell in the early 2000s and she made the decision to move back to the Midlands to be close enough to help with his care. This prompted her move to Derby where she worked as a community matron and an advanced nurse practitioner until 2016. After breaking her foot and being forced to rest, she left nursing to pursue a writing career.
There may yet be more nursing and midwifery memoirs in the future but her nurse training series was completed in November 2019 on publication of Hurry up Nurse 3: more adventures in the life of a student nurse.
Although Dawn loved nursing, she never confined herself totally to one thing. She has been an amateur photographer for around forty years and ran a photo restoration business for a few years. Dawn also taught youth groups and children’s groups as part of her church life.
Embracing life as an author, Dawn has written across genres, but is now focussed on cosy mysteries with one series based around her love of cruising. That series also incorporates her medical expertise. The first book, A Cruise to Murder (dedicated to her mum who died 30 years prior to its publication) has remained hugely popular with many readers reading the whole series. Dawn has added two others to her writing portfolio, the private investigator, Carlos Jacobi series and the Lady Marjorie mysteries. All her books are available in print, eBook, large print and audio.
Dawn is fully focussed on writing and has plans for more series in the future. She is always happy to hear from readers, so please feel free to get in touch.
I believe there are no limits to what a person can achieve if they set their mind to it, no matter what background we are born into, we should not be restrained by boundaries. I was born into a working class background where there was no money and life was a daily struggle for my mother. In spite of this she did her best and taught us that the most important thing in life was to be honest and earn respect. She once told me that it takes a lifetime to develop a good name and only a moment to lose it. I have never forgotten this. I left school with hardly any qualifications but I was determined to make something of my life, if it hadn’t been nursing, it would have been something else. I don’t believe that your background dictates who you are. I hope that my memoirs demonstrate this. I hope to engage readers from every walk of life through my writing. Please enjoy – if you do, tell others, if not, tell me and I will work hard to improve.