ilona Bannister

author

Hi and welcome!

I’m the author of two novels, When I Ran Away and Little Prisons.

Before I started writing, I left my job as an immigration lawyer and stayed home with my kids for a few years. When I tried to go back to work, I couldn’t get hired. So with half a heart, a whole lot of anxiety, and approaching forty, I took a writing class.

One thing led to another and now I sit in cafes all day looking thoughtfully into the distance with my books fanned before me.

That’s not true. I only do that on Thursdays at 11am.

Mostly I write and take care of my family. I talk to myself while I do laundry and listen to podcasts and make up stories about people I come across in the supermarket, and at the post office, and on the bus. I pay attention to details and conversations between strangers. I’d be a really good private detective.

My books are about light in the dark and the gorgeous in the ordinary. I write about women pushed to the margins and mothers on the edge. I write about love and loss and survival and hope. I write about the small moments and the big ones.

My books will make you cry, but I hope they’ll make you laugh too. I can’t forget to say that although I live in the UK, I’m a New Yorker, born and raised. All New Yorkers have to tell you that as soon as you meet us.

Thanks for reading this, and if you see me at a cafe on Thursday, I will buy you a coffee if you casually ask me about the books on the table ;)