Norfolk-born author Judy Turner, who wrote under the pseudonyms of Katie Flynn and Judith Saxton and sold millions of books, has died.

%image(14692963, type="article-full", alt="Judy Turner. Picture: Penguin Random House")

The best-selling author of historical and romantic fiction penned more than 90 books in her lifetime, selling more than eight million copies.

Caroline Sheldon, her literary agent of more than 30 years, said: 'Writing was her life and through her talent to tell stories she forged a remarkable career spanning nearly 50 years and selling over eight million books to her many fans.

'She will be much missed by all who knew her.'

Born in Norwich in 1936, her talent for writing flourished at an early age, while at Norwich High School for Girls she would leave stories on her desk for her classmates to find.

%image(14692964, type="article-full", alt="The front cover of Beyond the Blue Hills, a which was nominated for Romantic Novel of the Year Award 2007.")

She was inspired to write after having a poem published in Enid Blyton's Sunny Stories aged eight, she later moved to the North West where she often worked throughout the night to write her stories.

By the 1990s, Judy had become a top 10 Sunday Times bestselling author, with her first novel writing as Katie Flynn, A Liverpool Lass, being published in 1993.

Susan Sandon, managing director of Cornerstone at her publisher Penguin Random House, said: 'All at Century and Arrow feel immensely proud to have been Judy's publisher over so many years.

'Her story telling has provided pleasure for literally generations of readers; I feel privileged to have worked so closely with her.'

%image(14692965, type="article-full", alt=""In Time for Christmas " by Katie Flynn is the book taken out the most by borrowers of Suffolk libraries in 2012. Picture: Nick Butcher")

'In Time for Christmas ' was the book taken out the most by borrowers in Suffolk libraries in 2012.

She continued to write after she was diagnosed with ME (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) in 1996 and her daughter Holly worked as her assistant for 10 years.

On the latest two Katie Flynn books published by Century, Christmas at Tuppenny Corner and A Mother's Love, Holly joined her mother in the writing and further Katie Flynn novels on which Holly worked with her mother are still in the pipeline.

A Christmas Gift will be published in hardback in July 2019 and paperback in November 2019.