Like father, like son: Retired solicitor from Wellingborough pens his first novel

A retired solictor has followed in his father's footsteps by having a novel published.
Richard WrennRichard Wrenn
Richard Wrenn

After practising as a solicitor in Wellingborough for almost 30 years, Richard Wrenn of Great Doddington has just published his first novel at the age of 75.

It comes 60 years after his father, Harold Wrenn, was publishing novels and TV plays while being the long-running headmaster of Wellingborough Grammar School, which is now Wrenn School.

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Trust Betrayed is a fictional re-telling of Richard’s life and experiences in Wellingborough in the 1970s and 1980s.

It is a romantic drama set in an English market town in the 1980s, exploring a terrible conflict between love and duty.

Set in a solicitors’ firm, it revolves around three main characters: a young, ambitious solicitor called Mitcham, his senior partner Buller, and Susan, Buller’s only daughter, who falls in love with Mitcham.

All three suffer anguish as they wrestle with dire choices arising from betrayal and mistrust.

Richard said: “My father was an author.

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“He wrote mainly ‘who dunnit’ novels.

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“His hero was a solicitor called Mitchell who was the junior partner of a small firm of solicitors in a small market town in the Midlands.

“Father had six novels published in the 1950s and 1960s.

“Each one took him about a year to write in longhand, correct and perfect to a standard that he could submit to his agent.”

Richard first thought about writing a book about 26 years ago, but it was only during a conversation in more recent times with his future son-in-law that he had his ‘eureka’ moment on how to turn his story idea into a novel.

He said: “It was to be two months before I was able to find the time to sit down quietly with my laptop and start my novel.

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“I had discovered that publishers required a novel to be at least 25,000 words long.

“Apart from writing exam essays and drafting leases and wills, I had never written a lengthy piece.

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“How do I start? Could I really write a story that long?

“It seemed a daunting challenge, but I need not have worried.

“The characters in the story took me by the hand and developed the narrative for me.

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“By the time I had written 24,000 words, the stage was set for the drama to unfold.”

Trust Betrayed is available in print and on Kindle from Amazon, and the sequel is already completed and due to be published shortly.

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