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Beverley J. Hall was born in Kent, England, although her family returned to Scotland before her second birthday, which explains her accent (if you haven’t heard it yet, head over to her Q&A page). She grew up in North Lanarkshire, surrounded by rolling Scottish hills, with her nose in a book.
When she turned eighteen, she headed south to study Art & Design at Winchester School of Art and then Central St Martins, in London.
During these years, her love of storytelling developed as she realized creating a story is the same act (and one she enjoyed immensely), whether the medium is words, paint, sculpture, or fabric. Once her neurodivergent brain had the seed of a character, it continued to grow and develop until it was given a way out. She claims this is why, even before she came to believe she could be an author, she wrote constantly.
The Long Version
After the birth of her son, Alex, they would create stories about Alex Maji, a powerful magician who could, would, and should overcome the powers of evil.
As Alex struggled with his own cultural identity, the stories were created as a way of explaining to her son that differences didn’t matter (and did). The stories soon manifested into much more.
Eventually, her son outgrew the stories, but Beverley couldn’t let them die. The stories and characters manifested and developed in Beverley’s ADHD brain for many years before finally being written.
As her son grew from a child to a young adult, so did the stories and characters. What started out as children’s stories developed into much more complex and sensitive stories, and with the birth of her granddaughter, Beverley decided she wanted her hero to be female. The world has enough male saviors.
Living both in London and in Kent, she shared her love of reading, writing, and creativity for twenty years as a teacher before deciding she wanted, if not needed, to write for herself.
Then, after being diagnosed with a chronic illness and forced to pare back her life, she realized reading, writing, family, and her cat were the only things left that mattered to her. She credits her new life as a spoonie as the point where she came to believe that she could have a voice that others would want to hear.
She then undertook an MA in Creative Writing at Canterbury Christ Church University to hone her skills and develop into the writer she aspired to be. It was at this point that she took the brave (some might say foolhardy) step of quitting her reliable job as a teacher to follow her dreams of being a writer. Anybody who knows Beverley would admit that she is prone to impulsivity and diving into things with complete disregard for normality.
Having written several short stories, she wrote the first book in the Alex Chegasa series. The story continued to grow into the Tundra Stone Series.
She is now living and writing at the seaside with her son, her granddaughter, and her lazy cat, Bertie.
Bertie, Beverley J. Hall's cat... being lazy
