About
I was born a Kentish Maid, in 1947, as the snowiest winter in living memory began to recede. As a March baby, I entered a world of coal rationing, food shortages, floods, and power cuts! I was an only child, but grew up in a happy home that had no shortage of friends coming and going through it. It was a two up, two down, with an outside toilet, and when it snowed you had to remember to take a shovel with you to clear a path to the privy.
No wonder I’m a tough old bird!
I loved school, and hated it when I won an apprenticeship and had to leave. It galled me that I was forced to leave before taking my GCSEs. I managed to squeeze English in a few days before I left, but that was that. Before I could breathe, I was taking a train from Sidcup to Charing Cross every day, and a new life began. Apprenticeships in the 1960’s were indescribably hard, and one day I might just write a book on some of things that happened in Mayfair in the Swinging Sixties! The things we got up to would render you speechless today.
Looking back,
it’s a wonder I’m
still here!
I did a four-year apprenticeship at the most prestigious flower shop in London, Constance Spry Ltd in South Audley Street, W1, then went on to work in many other high-profile florists in and around London. However, life can derail you, especially when you are young and in a minority group that at that time was far from accepted. I found myself in no-man’s land, doing a variety of jobs, from factory work, to working on the pumps at a petrol station. I went in and out of floristry, worked at Ashford Hospital for several years, then my luck changed and I became a co-partner in a new flower shop in Weybridge in Surrey. When the other partner backed out, my friend Rose and I took it on alone, and we had 14 years that were incredibly hard work and unbelievably long hours, but it was such a rewarding time! We were good at what we did, and had some fantastic jobs; like decorating Westminster Abbey and other London venues, high-society weddings, and parties for the
rich and famous!
But… life can derail you when you are older, just as well as when you are young! The recession hit us hard, then a massive supermarket with a flower department, opened close by. We still had event work, but lost the passing trade and the bank called in all the money they had been so willing to lend. Bye-bye flower shop, hello WH Smith at Terminal Four, Heathrow! I’m nothing if not game! And from the tills, to being a supervisor on the books section, I became a manager in a lovely independent bookshop in Leatherhead. And that is where my chequered working career ended. I met my partner Jacqueline, who was a highly decorated, serving police officer, coming up for retirement, and
after a while we decided
to ride off together
into the sunset!
We have now been in Lincolnshire for 22 years, and with my adored Fens as inspiration, I’ve taken to a life of crime… writing, that is. My other source of inspiration came earlier, in 1995, when having suffered from ME for many years, somehow, I found the courage and physical strength to go off alone to a remote Greek island called Skyros, and attend a Writer’s Course with the incredible Sue Townsend. With her encouragement, support, and friendship, I knew that one day, writing was what I wanted to do. We stayed in touch for many years, and it was with a great deal of happiness that I was able to send her my first published hardback, before she so sadly passed away.
still in the Fens, with four Springers, and three Breton rescue spaniels! Oh my! We have our hands full! Despite all that, since joining my amazing publisher, Joffe Books, in 2016, I have written three series, totalling 30 books. They have all been made into audio books, and now, the icing on the cake, the Jackman books are to become a tv series starring Richard Armitage, as DI Rowan Jackman.
So here we are,
Now, where do we go from here….?
I’ll keep you posted!