Eloise Williams

Eloise Williams grew up opposite a library in Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taf, where she spent much of her time reading in the ruins of a castle. Her middle grade novels have won the Wales Arts Review Young People’s Book of the Year, the Wolverhampton Children’s Book Award, the YBB Book Award, and have been shortlisted for the Tir na nOg, the NE Book Awards and Wales Book of the Year. She has an MA in Creative Writing with distinction from Swansea University and was the inaugural Children’s Laureate Wales 2019-2021. 

Eloise now lives in West Wales, very close to the sea, where she wild swims, collects sea glass and ghost stories, and walks on the beach with her cairn terrier, Watson Jones.

'Honesty and Lies' by Eloise Williams

‘I cannot survive here alone. I need a friend.’

Winter, 1601. Greenwich Palace, London

On her first day in London, Honesty manages to get a job with Alice as a maid at the court of Elizabeth 1. But while Honesty looks for attention and praise, to make a better life for herself, Alice must stay invisible, hiding a terrible secret. In a world of treason and revenge, their friendship will put them both in danger. Can they even trust each other?

‘Pacy, atmospheric & full of period detail. One of my favourite reads of the year.’ Emma Carroll