EMJ Foster’s fourth novel, ‘Hedgehog to Salmon’ features an outspoken young woman, Jude, with the guts to back up her beliefs on how to protect the planet from environmental destruction. “I have been a campaigner on environmental and social issues since I can remember thinking for myself. Through writing I can express my frustrations, highlight injustices and hopefully, offer solutions.”
Foster was just 20 when she moved to the UK from The Netherlands in 1975. Now married to her second husband, she lives on the west Wales coast, near Aberaeron, Ceredigion, where, besides writing, she enjoys gardening, cycling, dancing and knitting. She writes a fortnightly column in the local press, the Cambrian News, called ‘Green Space’, in which she combines troublesome local issues with green solutions.
Her first novel ‘Home?’ (2019), tells the story of the Brexit referendum through the eyes of a Belgian woman married to a farmer and living and working in west Wales. As with her second novel ‘Sold Subject to Contract’ (2021), it draws deeply on her own experiences and features strong, independently minded female characters facing real life challenges. Set in the future but reflecting on current UK welfare legislation, her third novel ‘A Painful Legacy’ (2022) is similarly driven and its story is passionately told.
With a degree in Social Policy and Administration, EMJ Foster has worked as a private tutor in English, Maths and Science but is glad to be retired now. She still speaks fluent Dutch and maintains strong links to The Netherlands with a lot of family there. She has been learning Welsh since moving to Wales in 2000 and is determined to master it one of these days. Besides novels, Foster has written a few plays, short stories and a number of poems.