A few days after her father died four years ago, writer and actor Emma Decent was shocked to discover she had a sister she had never known anything about. Finding out the secret took her on a journey no one could have imagined.

The West Yorkshire-based writer and performer said: “My father left the woman heartbroken and pregnant in the early 1950s and never met his child. He left the country shortly after and didn’t return for 20 years.”

Emma became fascinated by the story but couldn’t ask the one person whose story it was – her father. So she began a journey, starting at Aberystwyth in Wales: “That was where my father had the affair – and where I was a drama student funnily enough.”

The journey became a quest following his footsteps around the world, in Eastern Europe, the Far East, and finishing where she was born – Toronto.

Both story and journey have inspired a new piece of solo theatre including multimedia by Emma called Beyond Dreams of Aberystwyth The show is at Bradford University’s Theatre in the Mill on March 1 and 2, at 7.30pm.