AN acclaimed author has written a novel set in the Malvern area during the Second World War and featuring the real-life artist Dame Laura Knight.

Clare Harvey, whose previous novels, The Gunner Girl and The English Agent, were well received, was inspired to write The Night Raid after seeing an exhibition of Dame Laura's work.

"The idea of there being a woman war artist lodged in my head, and became the inspiration behind my third wartime novel, in which a fictional version of Laura is one of the main characters," she said.

Dame Laura Knight's career spanned more than half of the twentieth century, and she worked as a war artist in both the First and Second World Wars. She loved the Malvern area and made many paintings in the local countryside.

"The Night Raid imagines a slice of Dame Laura’s life that never actually happened, but many the settings in the novel are real-life wartime locations, including the British Camp Hotel, where Laura and her husband Harold Knight lived for part of the war.

"They moved there in 1940 from their St John’s Wood House in London, in order to escape the Blitz. However, even up in the Malvern Hills, they weren’t isolated from the war, and I used some of Laura’s own recollections in a scene where guests are watching a bombing raid from the hotel terrace.

"As well as reading Laura’s autobiographies, I visited the area twice in the course of researching The Night Raid. This research helped me get a real feel for the place.

"It was fascinating to find out about Dame Laura Knight and to use as much information about the real Laura in my creation of her fictitious counterpart.

"It was also a real pleasure to have the excuse and opportunity to visit her wartime home in the Malvern Hills. I hope local readers will enjoy finding locations they recognise and discovering a fictional version of a famous local artist within the pages of The Night Raid."

The Night Raid will be out in Simon and Schuster paperback on December 14, priced £7.99.