Tessa Shapcott

Tessa Shapcott is Senior Executive Editor, leading a team of fourteen editors who commission for the Modern, Riva, Cherish, Medical and Historical Romance series at the Harlequin UK office in London.

Tessa began reading romance fiction at an early age, encouraged by her grandmother who gave Tessa her own 1936 first edition of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind on Tessa’s tenth birthday. Tessa took the novel with her to her very strict convent school where it was promptly confiscated for being too racy for a young girl!

But, because of Rhett Butler, Tessa had begun a life-long love-affair with the Alpha Male hero, and when her career in publishing led to being employed as Editor at Mills & Boon, she knew she’d died and gone to heaven. Twenty-four years later, she’s still there and having the time of her life!

Tessa cannot wait to see what the entries of this years competition will be like!

Why not take a peek at our other fabulous judges