A former scientist turned children's author has released her second book and is inviting children to a free workshop.
Dr Amanda Hartley is the founder of New Buckenham-based firm The Little Story Telling Company which helps inspire children with a love of literacy and science through workshops.
Mrs Hartley, who has a degree in pathology and a PhD in genetics, published her first book The DNA Detectives - To Catch a Thief in 2017.
The accompanying workshop to the sequel The Smugglers Daughter will be on July 29 at New Buckenham Village Hall.
There will be two sessions from 10am to 11.30am and 2pm to 3.30pm.
Mother-of-two Dr Hartley worked with DNA for 15 years and is a science educator as well as an author.
She said: 'I wanted to write something for my children, writing down family stories about us and the dog too.
'The idea is it's an exciting story and page turner but at the same time it's teaching children about DNA and forensic science.'
For each book Dr Harley has created a live workshop.
She said: 'We will be acting out scenes of ship wreckers setting out false lights on the rocks to lure a ship to its doom so they can plunder the goods!
'We will also be using DNA sequencing to find out what the chief of the smugglers would have looked like and identifying a rare mutation to try and find any relatives to the owner of the long lost treasure who are in the audience.'
There will be refreshments and activities for the children including quizzes, DNA bracelets, making flashlight signals like the smugglers, a photo booth based on characters from the book and decorating pirate hats.
Dr Hartley will also be signing books at the end of the workshop.
The event is free however Dr Hartley would like families to email her in advance at TLSTC@outlook.com to estimate numbers.
Dr Hartley was a finalist in the Business Parent of the Year category at the Mum and Working awards 2016, and is currently working on lesson plans to export to schools, as well as e-learning workshops.
She has worked in various NHS Molecular Genetic laboratories and was involved in setting up the forensic laboratories which are currently used by the Norfolk Police for forensic testing.
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