ILKLEY Moor is the setting for a child abduction in a gripping novel by an author who spent her formative years in the town.

Sanjida Kay has won critical acclaim for her second novel, The Stolen Child, and she will talk about the book and the ideas behind it at Ilkley Literature Festival.

Sanjida, who "grew up on both sides of Ilkley Moor", spent her childhood in Micklethwaite before moving to Ben Rhydding with her family when she was 16.

Her early years left her with an abiding love for the moor - and also an awareness of its dark potential.

The author has written a haunting tale of a happy family whose world is torn apart.

"It was hard to write because of the theme of child abduction," she said. "I have a daughter myself who is now the same age as Evie was in the book."

The Stolen Child is Sanjida's second published thriller. She placed it in Ilkley because she knows the town well and wanted to write about something that happened to ordinary people in an ordinary suburban town, but with the wilderness and danger of the moor on their doorstep.

She was delighted to accept an invitation to return to her home town to talk about the novel.

"I am just so delighted and honoured and excited because Ilkley was a very big part of my life," she said.

Sanjida will discusses her thriller with Carmen Marcus whose debut novel How Saints Die portrays adult mental breakdown through the eyes of a child. The event will take place at St Margaret's Church, at 4.30pm on Sunday, October 8.