An Algerian woman who now lives in Harrow has published her first book, set in the country she was born.

Monia Denine, 36, decided to try her hand at children’s fiction after she was unable to find anything in set in Algeria and written in English for her two daughters to read.

I spoke to her to find out more…

Describe the book, Yo! Let’s visit… Algeria

Maissa and Meriem are two sisters extremely bored with their routine of going to school in the morning, doing their homework in the afternoon and eating their dinner in the evening every day.

Then they are chit-chatting in the bunk bed of their shared bedroom, when suddenly something happens…The girls are about to embark on the most thrilling journey of their life.

Why did you write it?

I wrote the book because I could not find a kids book in English about Algeria. I wanted my daughters to know more about their country of origin.

Whenever we would go to local libraries within our borough, I would quickly check the International Kids book section, and to my disappointment: nothing about Algeria. So I thought to myself, hang on a minute, this is wrong and I definitely need to do something about it.

Have you always been into writing?

When I was a kid I would write poems in Arabic and stories of adventure in French. I didn’t speak any English then.

Things have since changed in Algeria. When I go back (at least once a year), I am pleasantly surprised to see kids learning additional languages such as English, German, Spanish, etc.

What is your writing process?

While writing I have to have my nice coffee that a friend brought me from Rwanda, then I get down to my writing with my mobile phone switched off and my girls out and about with their daddy.

I usually brainstorm and scribble on a white A4 printing paper, then start typing drafting, editing, deleting, rewriting over and over again until I feel it’s right.

How do you deal with writers block?

I have to say that I struggled with writers block alot, and that is why the book took over a year to be finished. Being prompted by my illustrator in the Philippines for advice meant that I had to get my acts together. I wanted to accomplish the book before my eldest daughter’s sixth birthday but that didn’t happen), so I had to pull my socks up and finish it by her seventh birthday, which did happen.

Available through Amazon.