Graduate’s Debut Novel Shines Light on Care Sector

A novel written by a University of Worcester graduate has gone on sale through a national book retailer.

Best Before: The Short Shelf Life, is the first novel published by Trudi Holland, who writes under the pen name DD Holland.

It is a social comedy exploring life inside a care home and is now available from Waterstones and other retailers.

“I’m excited,” she said. It’s a completely different feeling to finishing the book. When it’s shown to others that’s when it gets real, it’s not just on a laptop.”

The novel follows London hotel chef Szechwan Le Duc, whose career takes an unexpected turn when he finds himself working in a care home. Developed over four years, the story originated from short pieces Trudi wrote during her degree in Creative Writing at Worcester.

“I think community was a big theme that I was interested in and women working in care,” said Trudi. “An unspoken sector of women that put in all this work and don’t get the credit for it. There’s a lot of talk about care settings as being negative places. I wanted to investigate them as places of community rather than places we don’t want to be put in.”

Reflecting on her book, she added: “Your writing moves so quickly. The books are relics of who you were, that snapshot in time, so I look upon my previous work with a nostalgia of looking at yourself. It’s really nice to have that moment of you that’s really distilled.”

The 26-year-old is working towards a PhD in Creative Writing at Worcester, alongside a role as an Associate Lecturer in Creative Writing and English Literature.

Trudi, who says she has always loved storytelling, wrote her first novel at just 16 and has completed two more since. Best Before is the first she has taken forward to publication.

After winning the University of Worcester’s Black Pear Press Prize for fiction in 2022, which led to the publication of her short story collection The Lady Doth Protest, Trudi submitted Best Before to the same publisher who accepted it. She even designed the front cover herself.

Trudi, of Tewkesbury, credited her time at the University of Worcester in helping to develop her confidence in writing.

“I honestly rave about this university; I came back here for my PhD because I loved it,” she said. “If I hadn’t had the opportunity to win the Prize, I wouldn’t be here launching the book. I was struggling with the confidence to write, feeling that I had something worth saying. The University was just adamant that my voice was important; what I had to say and how I wanted to say it. They have been very supportive, so my confidence has blossomed every year I’ve spent here. They made me a more sensitive writer, a more aware writer.”

Best Before is available from booksellers or the Black Pear Press website.