UP and coming Halesowen author Tanya Bullock is celebrating after making it to the final 12 in a national fiction prize for her first novel.

She reached the finals of the People’s Book Prize – and automatic entry into the Beryl Bainbridge First Author Award – from hundreds of writers and publishers and attended an awards ceremony at London’s Stationers’ Hall.

The 39-year-old special needs lecturer said she was “over the moon” to see her first novel, That Someone Special, highlighting the quest of people with learning difficulties to find love and acceptance, do so well.

Her second book, Homecoming, about an elderly couple with dementia finding love together in a care home tackling equally sensitive issues was published in April and is available in all good bookshops.

The married mother-of-two, of Westboune Road, who writes under her maiden name, is hoping to break into the more commercial genre of the crime novel with her third story, although her characters, all being lonely hearts, remain on the outside of mainstream society.

“I am writing a crime novel because I want to see if I can make a career out of writing. My first books have been well received, but they are a bit of a niche genre,” she said.