My name is Holly Hinton.

I am both a writer and an actress. Acting tends to involve some down time doncha know? My previous non-acting jobs have included theme park worker, water company worker, front-of-house worker, care worker, school support worker, and acting workshop worker. But none of those jobs brought me to writing The Summer Sacrifice. That involved a family holiday in Swanage 5 years ago…

England’s Jurassic Coast is a thing of wonder. But it has always seemed to me that Dancing Ledge has a particular kind of magic. One day, after a brief (and wet) visit to the Ledge, an image popped into my head.

I saw a large gang of teenagers dancing their hearts out on Dancing Ledge. Only in my head the Ledge was much, much bigger. And as they danced the greatest dance of their lives, some of them were falling into the water and drowning.

What compelled me to see an open-roofed night out gone so wrong is anyone’s guess, but from that day on all I could think about was why this was happening to those thirteen-year-olds. (I knew how old they were even then.) I had to solve the mystery. And I’ve spent the last few years doing just that. Luckily for me, Jamie Tuff flew into my brain shortly after the image did, and she has been helping me through it.