AN AUTHOR who wrote a children’s novel set in Rhyl is to be a special guest of a performing arts group in the town.

Daniel Whelan, who set The Box of Demons in town, will be holding a workshop for members of Work in Progress in May.

Work in Progress is a performing arts group which puts positive mental health and wellbeing at the heart of everything it does.

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Its artistic director, Leslie Churchill Ward, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to announce that our first visiting guest artist of 2024 is author Daniel Whelan, who will be working with members in May.

“For Daniel's workshop, he will finally be bringing his children’s novel The Box of Demons to Rhyl, where the novel is set.

“He will work with our members on creating characters using drawings as a starting point, before looking at how characters work and the importance of looking to your local community as a source of stories.”

Daniel hails from North Wales himself, while The Box of Demons won the Write Now! prize.

He trained as an actor at Drama Centre London, before moving on to playwrighting; his adaptation of Richard Adams' Watership Down was performed at Riverside Studios, and was hailed by Mr Adams as “the best he'd read”.

Now, Daniel is working on his second novel.

Work in Progress was officially registered as a community interest company (CIC) on April 1.

Toby Fagan, chairman and co-founder, said: “Being a CIC is very exciting and has many benefits for us as a group.

“It will bring more opportunities and open more doors when it comes to funding.

“Finding funding is important to us as it means we can keep our sessions free of charge for our members, making the performing arts accessible for everyone regardless of income or employment status.”