I am lucky enough to live in two places. I started writing Sadie’s Story in our old farmhouse in rural France at the kitchen table. I finished the book in our home in the centre of Liverpool where we have lived for thirty plus years.
I have always loved stories, hearing them and telling them. Story making has been a useful tool in my work with young people and as a chaplain, a preacher, a counsellor and in creating training resources.
I was born in 1948, left my secondary modern school with a handful of O’levels, got married the same week as I turned twenty one, to the boy who sat next to me in primary school. We had two children by the time we were twenty four. The product of all this is a long, happy marriage and several amazing grandchildren whose zest for life fuels my faith in the future.
When my children were babies, I escaped in the evenings to the world of night-school where I added some A’levels to my achievements and when they suggested I try a degree, my reply was “people like me don’t do degrees.” Apparently they do, mine is in English and Religious Studies.
Sadie’s Story is my first novel. It came from a passion for exploring family history which I share with my cousin Joan. It turns out she is a whiz at the research bit and I add the flesh to the bones. Beware, once you unearth these people from the past, they have a way of insisting that you tell their stories, complaining when you don’t tell them well! I think there may be more tales to come, I hope so, I have loved telling Sadie’s story.