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International best-selling author Louis de Bernières has swapped words for music in a new collaboration with a Norfolk singer.

The Norfolk-based author, most famous for ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’ has teamed up with singer/songwriter, Selina Hawker, on her first music video.

But the writer – whose award-winning novel was turned in to a hit movie starring Nicolas Cage and Penélope Cruz – preferred acoustic guitar to mandolin to accompany Selina’s new song, called Trance.

Selina, a music teacher at Great Yarmouth Charter Academy, said she originally produced the song and video to inspire the pupils at her school to write music.

“It’s really important for children to see people they know and from their town doing well, so for pupils to see their teacher working to achieve her dreams has made them think: ‘I could do that too!‘“

“Many have brought me lyrics about painful subjects and I have helped them make these into songs. It’s a real privilege,” she said.

The two songwriters met at the Norfolk Academy of Gymnastics near Attleborough, where their daughters were training. Louis needed a violinist and Selina needed a guitarist, so despite a full-time job the collaboration persevered.

Louis writes “Selina is a delight to work with. She has contributed an enormous amount to my recordings with her voice and violin and I am glad to have contributed a little to hers too.”

Trance crosses the divide between jazzy pop and classical, using acoustic and electric instruments.

Much of the video was filmed underwater in a swimming pool in Hingham, but producer Donovan Jones has made Selina appear to be in Ketteringham Hall’s lake. Those who have visited Ketteringham Hall and made use of their excellent Piano Tea Room will recognise the Hall’s atmospheric staircase and forested grounds, both used as locations for the Trance video.

The three dancers in the video are young aspiring professionals; Nancy attends Dance East in Ipswich, Phoebe trains at Anglia Region Theatre School and Lydia attends Stella’s School of Dance in Hethersett. Both Nancy and Phoebe have danced together for years in Scooby’s Norwich-based group Passion Production and Laura Gill’s company Full Tilt. Selina writes “I know that in a few years I would have to pay these talented and expressive dancers a lot for their contributions. Being able to choreograph a music video at their age is phenomenal.”