The RNA team
The RNA is governed by a board of directors, supported by other senior volunteers who are part of the wider management team.
Sue Moorcroft
President
Sue is a Sunday Times bestselling author. She writes two books a year for Avon, HarperCollins and has won the Goldsboro Books Contemporary Novel of the Year, Readers’ Best Romantic Novel award, a HOLT Medallion and the Katie Fforde Bursary. She is also a former vice-chair of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and editor of their anthologies.
Seána Talbot
Director/Governance Officer and Chair
Seána has significant board experience, having served on a number of statutory, charity, and private sector boards. In her day job she works for a leading charity. She has written a number of historical romance novels as Catherine Tinley and has won two RoNA Awards, a Rita® Award and the HOLT medallion.
Katharine Light
Director
Katharine joined the RNA after independently publishing her first novel, Like Me, in November 2023. She has spent most of her working life in event management and is head of operations for a busy church based in south-west London. She and her husband are currently empty nesters, although they will not be surprised if at least one of their children returns home for a time. She loves singing, walking, painting, looking at art, and going to the theatre. Her second novel, Me Too, comes out in November 2024.
Sharon Ibbotson
Director/Romantic Novel of the Year Awards Organiser
Sharon is the Romantic Novel of the Year Awards Coordinator for the RNA, which means she gets to talk about books with people who love them. She is an author and lives in London with her family. In her spare time, she likes to read, drink wine, and write short autobiographies like this for magazines.
Deborah Klee
Director
Deborah writes uplifting page-turners about friendship, community and emotional courage. Host of podcasts: The Mindful Writer and Castaway Books.
Deborah has significant board experience having chaired a number of Statutory Boards. As a management consultant, she has worked with senior management teams enabling change and transformation. She is also a member of the Frinton Literary Festival Committee.
A member of the Essex Chapter, she loves to walk by the sea or surrounding countryside filling her pockets with shells, and acorns, and her head with stories.
Lucy Morris
Director/Newsletter Coordinator
Lucy graduated from the NWS in 2021 after publishing her debut historical romance with Mills & Boon (Harlequin Historical); she hasn’t looked back since. Obsessed with myths and legends, her books blend sweeping romance with vivid worldbuilding to whisk you away to another time and place. Expect passion, drama, and vibrant characters. When she’s not writing, she spends time with her husband, two children and two cats. Her hobbies include swimming, drinking prosecco with friends, and generally trying to live her best life.
Annette Hannah
Director/Press Officer
Annette’s background is in marketing and she’s served on the RNA committee for three years as Press Officer. She graduated from the New Writers’ Scheme in 2020 after four years and she’s about to have her fourth romcom published with Orion Dash. Her hobbies include reading, book blogging and travelling.
Catherine Wiseman
Director/Treasurer
Catherine is the Treasurer for the RNA and joined in 2024. She has significant financial and board experience from her roles within the financial industry. Although not a writer, she is an avid reader and keen consumer of the genre and is looking forward to supporting the RNA.
Katie Ginger
Director/Member Services Officer and Vice-chair
Maria Wilson
Director/Volunteer Coordinator
Lou Morgan
Management Team Member/Diversity and Inclusion Officer
Lisa Firth
Management Team Member/Website Coordinator
Lisa is the author of twenty books in various genres under her increasingly numerous pen names, including romcoms as Mary Jayne Baker and wartime sagas as Betty Firth, as well as a professional graphic designer. She has been a member of the RNA since her debut was published in 2016 and has served on the management team since 2022.
Janice Preston
Management Team Member/Finance Officer
Janice joined the NWS in 2012 and graduated in 2014, since when she’s written a number of historical romances. She joined the management team in 2022, and appears to be a rarity among novelists in that she enjoys finance and is not scared of spreadsheets!
Sarah Rodi
Management Team Member/NWs Coordinator
Kate Galloway Smith
Management Team Member/Romance Matters Editor
Kate is a best-selling author of contemporary romantic fiction and crime thrillers and has been a member of the RNA since 2020, graduating from the NWS in 2021. With a degree and master’s in psychology and therapy, it’s the humanity of the characters that lead Kate’s plots.
Kate lives in the beautiful county of Norfolk with her daughter and their cats. She loves Irn-Bru and macarons and can often be found with both, as she ferries her daughter back and forth to the local stables.
Maryam Oliver
Management Team Member/Joan Hessayon Award Coordinator
Maryam writes historical romance as Melissa Oliver and has been a member of the RNA since 2017, graduating from the NWS a few years later. She’s the coordinator of the Joan Hessayon Award – an award which she was a recipient of in 2020.
Linda Willacy
Management Team Member/Chapter Liaison
Linda joined the RNA in 2023 on the NWS and is currently writing her first novel. Before retiring, she was a HE principal lecturer, managing a team and serving on a number of university committees and boards. As well as devouring novels and repositioning commas, her personal interests include archival research of domestic life in the 18th century, notions of social identity, and all things French.
Helen Kelly
Management Team Member/Membership Secretary
Helen became a member of the RNA in February 2023, after independently publishing her first novel. She loves history and went to university as a mature student. In the end, she left with three different master’s degrees in History. In addition to her books, she also writes theatre reviews for the Northern Arts Review. She lives in North Yorkshire with her husband and youngest daughter. She loves going out and about and can sometimes be found in London or Stratford Upon Avon as she visits these regularly.
Ali Henderson
Management Team Member/Secretary
Ali joined the NWS in 2020 and writes romcoms. She’s been the RNA’s company secretary since 2020 and also assists the awards and conference teams.
