St Mary’s Alumna Releases First Book

An alumna of the Creative and Professional Writing BA at St Mary’s University, Twickenham is having her first novel published later this month.

Boy Meets Hamster is the debut novel from Birdie Milano, who earned a first class honours degree at St Mary’s, and is being published on Thursday 14 June by Pan Macmillian.

The Young Adult fiction book follows teenage boy Dylan who, when on a £9.50 holiday with his mum and best friend at a Cornwall caravan park, falls in love fellow holidaymaker Jayden-Lee. However, Dylan’s best friend Kayla claims Jayden-Lee might not be as nice beneath the surface.

Dylan’s romantic hopes also keep getting scuppered by the caravan park’s hamster mascot Nibbles during a series of embarrassing episodes for the teenage boy.

The publication of Birdie’s quirky, feel-good novel, which has been called ‘A warm, open and generous book with enormous heart’ by fellow Young Adult author Maggie Harcourt, follows on from her picking up the 2015 United Agents Prize for Most Promising Writing for Young People at Bath Spa University.

Senior Lecturer in the Creative Writing BA at St Mary’s Russell Schechter, said, “Birdie was an exceptional and memorable student at St Mary’s, and a wonderful writer. I am as unsurprised by her great success as I am utterly delighted.”

The novel can be purchased in paperback or Kindle through Amazon. More information on the Creative and Professional Writing BA can be found online.