This New Book Will Keep The Kids Busy This Summer

Raised in Warrington, Cheshire, Lorna completed a Psychology degree in Hull and then headed to Vancouver, Canada for a year. She travelled through the US and Mexico, went home, saved up – then travelled through Asia, around Australia and New Zealand. ‘It was in Australia that I met my husband, who happened to be from the North East of England,’ Lorna says. The couple had two kids and moved back to the UK in 2021. ‘We settled in Richmond, as it was between our parents’ homes and had everything we wanted: close to trails for running (we are both trail runners, and love doing the occasional ultra-marathon), good schools, not too big, it just felt right.’

It was whilst walking around Richmond that Lorna came up with the idea to create Word Hunt Adventures thanks to ‘all the stories on plaques, the random old signs above doors and the depth of the history’. ‘I had started to have a fascination with the power of words, having begun to write motivational poetry,’ she explains. ‘Also when we first arrived back in the UK, I was looking for treasure-hunts for places to visit to encourage the kids to come exploring, get outdoors and learn. I found if we wanted to visit multiple places it was a lot of money for each individual treasure hunt. So I thought about creating a hunt for words that could be entered into a crossword puzzle that, when completed, would reveal a motivational word.

‘Having lived overseas for many years you notice how language is used differently in different cultures and I noticed how much people put themselves down or “jokingly” use insults with each other here in the UK. I wanted to provide a vocabulary of positive words that could be used and incorporated into mysteries to solve in the book. To be honest, initially I thought I would just do one crossword puzzle and maybe give it to the local schools as an activity, but I personally found it so much fun that I kept visiting more places, creating more puzzles and being inspired by the amount of motivational words that could be leveraged.’

Word Hunt Adventures contains 15 locations around the North, including York and Durham, as well as towns and villages, from Middleham to Whitby and Goathland to Pateley Bridge – and Richmond. 'For each location there’s a map with numbers in certain spots, there is also a crossword puzzle and clues you need to go to the number on the map, read the clue and look for the word answer to the clue in that location, then add it to the crossword puzzle,’ says Lorna. ‘A completed puzzle reveals the mystery motivational word. When all the puzzles are completed there are two secret messages to reveal at the back of the book, one is how to have superpowers! So whatever you feel like doing, if it’s visiting castles, going to the beach or riding on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway – there is a location that you can explore in the book.

‘With this one book, you have so much opportunity to explore so many places. It will also help you find things you might not have discovered, like playgrounds, river walks, historic monuments – and the good thing is, it’s a distraction for the kids as you explore a location. It can sometimes be hard having them walk around towns or cities, but this gives them the fun factor of looking for something, following a map, figuring out the word that needs to be entered into the puzzle. All you need is the book, a pen and a picnic.’

Personally, Lorna is a fan of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. ‘That is why I included three locations in the book,’ she says. 'It’s like going back in time or journeying to Hogwarts (Goathland was the Hogwarts station used in the film). I love the staff in their traditional outfits, the sound of the whistle at a crossing, the chugging of the engine and how everybody you pass stops and waves to the passengers. Pickering, Goathland and Whitby are all in the book and they all have their unique magic; with a castle, an abbey and access to so many trails for walking!’

Word Hunt Adventures is on sale now at Amazon or via wordhuntadventures.com.

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