About

Valerie Norris is an author.

Since taking early retirement in 2013, Valerie has published five novels with Cambria Books, the most recent of which is entitled As Knowing Goes and was published in December 2025. In The Long Run, The April Letters, Beyond Closure and Further Beyond were published in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2023, respectively.

In her professional career, Valerie was a Materials Engineer. She was awarded a Royal Society Research Fellowship that took her to Swansea University where she went on to be awarded a Chair, and later became Head of the Materials Research Centre.

The high point of her career was to be honoured with the title ‘Welsh Woman of the Year’ in 1998, which led to many activities in public life. In 2004, she was invited to Buckingham Palace as one of the ‘Top 180 female achievers in the country’.

As well as her novels, she has written and published some 370 research papers and five textbooks in her previous name, Valerie Randle, and has given lectures all over the world. She has achieved an entry in Who’s Who.

Valerie was born and educated in Kidderminster, England. Wales has been her home since she moved there at the age of 18 with her first husband. She has been widowed twice and met and married the philosopher-poet Christopher Norris not long after her retirement. She has two children, six grandchildren and three step-grandchildren.

Valerie likes to spend her time singing in various acapella groups, long-distance walking, practising yoga and meditation, and writing. She has also volunteered with Cruse Bereavement Support since 2005.