k u .co. mind our y think re #IFeelBetterWhen Maxine Linnell Born and bred in Leicester, Maxine Linnell has seven published books. Vintage and Closer are novels set in Leicester and based on the lives of young adults, published by Five Leaves. Breaking the Rules, a Young Adult story about Facebook, was commissioned by A&C Black. Maxine was also commissioned to retell three of Thomas Hardy’s novels, which are published by Real Reads. Her latest book is a collection of poems, This Dust, published by SoundsWrite Press. At the heart of this book is a powerful sequence of poems about the life and sudden death of her son. The book explores traumatic grief and the process of finding a way to live with loss. Maxine was a psychotherapist for thirty years, and edited Self & Society, the journal of the Association of Humanistic Psychology in Britain, for ten years. Now she teaches creative writing, and is a professional editor and mentor. She lives in Rothley and is a trustee of Rothley Community Library. www.maxinelinnell.com Poetry Assessor 87