Samantha D Yagiz – biography

Born in West Yorkshire but raised in York, Samantha now lives in London, where she has worked since 1998 as a nursing assistant for the NHS. She is married and has five grown-up children and five grandchildren.

Since she could read and write at a very early age, Samantha made up stories on the pages of colouring books. She visited York Library regularly, where she sat and read Enid Blyton books and stories of witches, goblins, fairies and ghosts.

Aged eight, she read her first adult book: The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens. She became enthralled by the Victorian era and obtained her first library card, ecstatic that she could borrow books to take home. She also purchased a dictionary. On leaving school, she was employed at Terry’s Chocolate Factory in York and since then has had many short-term jobs, as well as college and voluntary care work.

Inspired by the Brontës, Samantha wrote her first Victorian saga aged fourteen [unpublished]. Her writing was then put on hold for many years. Much of her inspiration is from dreams or her own experiences, and what she observes or hears around her. She does not create characters – they appear to her and take her into their world.

Samantha’s self-published debut novel Call of Ravenheart is set in the 17th century in Breda, the Netherlands. It was published in 2015, inspired by the painting of ‘The Fruit, Flowers and Bird’s Nest’ by Jan Van Os [1744-1808]. Samantha’s favourite male monarch is Charles II and he has a cameo role, set during his exile before the Restoration.

Samantha has written one contemporary book and a psychological crime novel, but all her other works yet to be published are set during the Victorian era in the genre of romance.

Since 2010 she has attended a number of Romantic Novelists’ Association events and has now joined the Bournemouth Writers/Bournemouth Writing Festival as she spends a lot of time in Bournemouth, Dorset. One of her books is set in Brockenhurst in Hampshire, which she also visits frequently, in The New Forest.

Samantha is an avid reader – a bookaholic – and would panic if she did not have a book on her travels. She buys at least three at a time, as she reads two to three in a week.

You can find Samantha on Facebook on her author page Samantha D Yagiz and on X as @samanthayagiz.