Prolific author awarded honorary degree from Northumbria University

Award winning crime author, Cally Taylor, has been awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from Northumbria University.

Cally came to Northumbria to study psychology and graduated in 1995. It was during this time that she developed a particular interest in abnormal and criminal psychology.

With a back catalogue that includes 10 thrilling psychological novels, two romantic comedy novels, two young adult novels and numerous short stories, Cally describes her time at Northumbria as three of the happiest years of her life and believes her experience at the University helped her shape and achieve her dream of becoming an author.

The course she studied, the people she met and the things she did all served to feed Cally’s imagination. At the same time, she developed a deep knowledge of psychology that has given her an insight into people and has subsequently helped shape the fictional characters she creates.

Speaking about her honorary degree from Northumbria, which was presented during summer graduation ceremonies held at the University’s Newcastle City Campus, Cally said: 'I couldn't be more delighted to receive an honorary degree from Northumbria University in recognition of my career as an author. It's a huge honour and I feel incredibly lucky, not just to receive the award but because my three years at Northumbria were incredibly happy. From my BSc Psychology, to the time I spent as part of the Drama Society, to the friends I made, I couldn't have asked for more from my university experience. To be honoured in this way means an enormous amount and I'm very grateful.'

Cally was born in Worcester and spent her early years moving back and forth between the UK and Germany following her father’s regiment from one army base to another.

After graduating from Northumbria, she spent 13 years in Brighton where she built a career as an instructional designer.  But the desire to be an author never left her and she began writing after work as a hobby. 

Her debut novel, Heaven Can Wait, was published in 2009 and was followed in 2011 by Home for Christmas, which was later made into a feature film by JumpStart Productions. Both novels were translated into 13 languages. 

This early success gave Cally the confidence to leave work and become a full-time writer.  But at this time, she also changed direction in her writing and turned to crime, writing psychological thrillers under the name C L Taylor.  Her first thriller, The Accident, sold over 150,000 copies in the UK alone and was named ‘One of the Top 10 Bestselling Debuts of 2014’. 

Her next book, The Lie, sat in the Sunday Times Best Seller Charts for five weeks and topped the Amazon charts for three months.  The psychological thriller draws on Cally’s time at Northumbria. It features four female characters who meet at the University and many of the scenes are shaped by her own personal experiences of her time here, such as Freshers Week.

Cally’s subsequent novels have gone on to be Sunday Times best-selling thrillers, selling over two million copies in the UK alone and reaching the number one slot on Amazon Kindle, Audible, Kobo, iBooks and Google Play. They have been translated into over 30 languages and twice selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club.  Her tenth novel, Every Move You Make, was published in March this year.