University of Chichester’s MA creative writing student Isabel Ashdown has secured a publisher for her debut novel ‘Glasshopper’, which she started writing while studying as an undergraduate in the English Department.

The book has been accepted by Myriad Editions, an agency based in Brighton. Myriad has secured the UK & Commonwealth rights, and 'Glasshopper' will be published in October 2009.

‘Glasshopper’ won the 2008 Mail on Sunday novel prize and was praised by judges including Fay Weldon and the late John Mortimer as ‘magnificent’. Isabel completed a creative writing degree at the University of Chichester with first class hours in 2007 and received the Hugo Donnelly Prize for Outstanding Academic Achievement. Her poem ‘Milk and Eggs’ was shortlisted for the 2006 Bridport International Poetry Prize.

Isabel is 38, and she lives in Chichester with her carpenter husband and two children. Isabel who left her job in senior management in the cosmetics industry to write, said: “I've always had a secret desire to write, but when I embarked on the BA in English and Creative Writing it had been 20 years since I'd really written anything. Halfway through the degree, I decided to write this novel, and as the characters and story took me over it was like discovering an old friend.

“I'm delighted to have found an agent and publisher so quickly - and I'm even more thrilled that they are both based in the Brighton area, which is one of the key locations in 'Glasshopper'. The BA and now the MA in Creative Writing have given me the perfect vehicle through which to write, and it is much thanks to the excellent staff at the University of Chichester that I have been able to benefit from their insightful tuition and develop as a serious writer."

As ‘Glasshopper’ progresses, the story travels between Portsmouth, Hove, the Isle of Wight and the French Dordogne, and moves between the perspective of teenager Jake and his alcoholic mother Mary. Whilst Jake’s narrative remains located in the 1980s, his mother’s narrative shifts through time.

Isabel will be completing her MA in December 2009 and has already started work on her second novel.