Welcome

Have I always wanted to write?

 

        Spurred by the theory of nominative determinism* into hoping that the family name might indicate an eponymous gene, yes. I always wanted to write. However, reduced to earning my living through more certain means, I nevertheless still harboured the ambition to fulfill my  destiny; reasoning that Story by name must surely indicate some intrinsic ability!

 

    Worried I was reading too much Enid Blyton, my primary-school teacher sent for my mother when I was eight.  Relieved it wasn’t Lolita or Lady Chatterley my parents wisely ignored her concern. Soon after, on learning that Johanna Spyri had written Heidi at nine years old, I rushed to produce my first book - MARY STROOD, ARTIST- submitted it to GIRL magazine for serialization ... and received my first rejection.

  

    Following a career in business, I now live with my partner, two cats and a dog in the glorious South Warwickshire countryside where I pass the time writing books, editing the monthly village magazine and soaking up the tales of  everyone who’ll talk to me!

 

What have I written?

 

     Works include two thrillers, a one-act play staged at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 2004 and four Amos Cotswold mysteries: ON A THIN STALK and SHROUDED LEGACY -  published by Robert Hale in 2007, STRAWS UPON THE SURFACE published in 2008. All these are now also available as Kindle editions as is THE OCTOPUS CONTRACT published exclusively as an e-book in 2011.

 

    THE LAST CHATELAINE is a departure from the previous ‘who dunnit’s’ in that while I can never resist a mystery, this time I have strayed into the stuff of every woman’s dreams.

 

 

*Nominative Determinism is the phenomenon by which some people’s names fit the job they do. For instance:

- Geoff Carless wrote ‘Motorcycling for Beginners

- Maurice Golesworthy edited The Encyclopaedia of Association Football

and now we have the wonderful Olympic sprinter – Usain Bolt.

A personal favourite however is a paper on incontinence written in 1987 by A.J.Splatt and D. Weedon.