Literary Lunch – Menna van Praag

After the success of our February Literary Lunch in April, we are thrilled to share that the talented author, Menna van Praag, is next in the spotlight, with our lovely poet-in-residence, Jude Simpson, asking the questions.

Jude will be chatting with Menna and talking about her fantasy novel trilogy (The Grimm Sisters) and her creative writing. 

Menna van Praag

Menna van Praag was born in Cambridge and studied Modern History at Balliol College, Oxford. Publishing her first novella, Men, Money & Chocolate, in 2011, it has been translated into 26 languages. Her first novel, The House at the End of Hope Street (2013), was sold at auction for a good six-figure sum and published by Viking in the US. Four more magical realism novels followed: The Dress Shop of Dreams (2015), The Witches of Cambridge (2016), The Lost Art of Letter Writing (2017), and The Patron Saint of Lost Souls (2019), all set in Cambridge.

Her first fantasy novel, The Sisters Grimm (2020), was a critical and commercial success, with The Guardian saying that “van Praag spins a compelling, intensely poetic narrative of empowerment and self-realisation.” Transworld (Harper Voyager in the US) published The Sisters Grimm as a trilogy, with the second instalment, Night of Demons & Saints, following in 2022 and the third, Child of Earth & Sky, to be published in Oct 2023.

Menna is also a lecturer in Creative Writing who teaches for Cambridge University and Anglia Ruskin University, as well as The Cambridge School of Drama & the Creative Arts. She’s also co-founder of The Cambridge Creative Writing Company. She’s worked as a script reader and editor for BBC Wales, BBC Films and Box TV and for The Wylie Literary Agency.

One of those rare finds: a vivid and fully-realised act of the imagination, written with the page-turning immediacy of the here and now, but overflowing with the wonder of the stories of old.

― Robert Dinsdale, author of The Toymakers (on The Sisters Grimm)

Vividly drawn, evocative and complex, The Sisters Grimm is both absorbing and beautiful – a great achievement.

― Bridget Collins, author of The Binding (on The Sisters Grimm)

A very grown-up fairy-tale with more than a nod to Angela Carter and Philip Pullman… spellbinding.

― Starburst (on Night of Demons and Saints)

Darkly beguiling… perfect for fans of rich and imaginative fantasy books akin to Erin Morgenstern and Neil Gaiman.

— Culturefly (on Night of Demons and Saints) 

Purchase your tickets here!