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 three Amos Cotswold mysteries: ON A THIN STALK and SHROUDED LEGACY -  published by Robert Hale in 2007 and STRAWS UPON THE SURFACE published in 2008.

 

    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.