It is my pleasure to introduce you to Luisa A Jones. Luisa is Welsh author and writes historical fiction set in Wales. She is a kind, supportive member of the local chapter of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. I adore her novels and was keen to discover more about Luisa’s writing journey and new release – What We Left Behind.
Jessie: When did you first realise you wanted to write novels?
Luisa: I’ve always known. I started writing novels when I was a teenager but never finished one. I didn’t believe someone like me could become an author. In my thirties I had a flash of inspiration for a story. I fell in love with the characters and although writing was hard, I knew where it was going and could visualise the scenes easily. I worked on it for ten years, learning and improving my craft. It became Goes Without Saying, my first novel.
Jessie: Explain what your new release – What We Left Behind – is about and what inspired you to write it.
Luisa: What We Left Behind is about a group of evacuee children from London arriving in Wales in 1939. My editor wanted me to write about the Second World War, and I wanted to explore how Wales was affected. When I started researching, a few sources mentioned a mixed-race family being evacuated to the Valleys and facing racism initially, but later being accepted. It was something I hadn’t read about before, so I decided to write about it.
Jessie: Where is What We Left Behind set? Share one quote from your novel that captures the setting.
Luisa: All my historical novels are set in Pontybrenin, a fictional Welsh town. The evacuees are billeted at Plas Norton, a nearby mansion. In this extract, the children travel by car to the house.
On they went, until they rounded a bend and saw a building in the distance. Built of stone, with four towers and tall chimneys, it looked like a castle from a storybook. Staring, Olive forgot about the long train journey and the fear she’d felt… As they drew closer, passing through metal gates onto a wide sweep of gravel in front of an arched porch of pale stone, her jaw hung slack. She half expected to see the King and Queen appear on the roof of the porch, like the newsreels she’d seen of them waving from Buckingham Palace with the princesses in their pretty frocks. Beside her, Barbara gasped…
More about Luisa A Jones:
Luisa A Jones lives in South Wales. She writes captivating and emotional fiction with characters you’ll root for from the first page.
Luisa’s first historical novel in The Fitznortons series, The Gilded Cage, was published in 2023, and quickly became a #1 US and UK Amazon bestseller in Victorian Historical Romance. The sequel, The Broken Vow, was released in 2024. She is currently writing a new series for Storm Publishing, set in Wales during the Second World War. The first book, What We Left Behind, was published on 30th May 2025.
More About What We Left Behind:
Bombs threaten London and five small children step onto a rickety train, clutching their gas masks, heading to an uncertain future…
When the war with Nazi Germany sends five displaced children to her door, Dodie Fitznorton knows life in her quiet village will never be the same. The baggage these little ones bring is far more than just their tattered suitcases. Eight-year-old Olive trembles when spoken to and won’t say how she got a bruised lip, and her brother Peter seems angry at the entire world. Then Dodie meets the children’s teacher, Patrick Winter, who makes her feel she’s not alone in this fight.
As darkness falls over Europe, Dodie’s fragile sanctuary begins to feel like a fortress under siege. With whispers of spies in the village and the children’s precious futures at stake, Dodie must decide who to trust before everything she’s built crumbles to ashes around her…
A deeply poignant tale of love forged in wartime – heartwarming, captivating and impossible to forget.
I had the honour of beta reading What We Left Behind. I loved this novel set in Wales during World War Two. The story is utterly gripping, heartwarming and emotional. I was lost in the book as soon as the evacuees arrived at Plas Norton. Luisa is a talented writer and has already had great reviews on Amazon, so click on the link below to discover more.
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