I am engaged in writing a series of novels set between 1933 and 1948 in the land of my childhood memories, the British Mandate of Palestine. Palestine was partitioned in 1948 into two countries one of which is Israel.
The introductory novel,'Struggling Free' is set between 1938 and 1942 and can be bought from Kindle Store. The next three novels, Maftur, Patsy and Dalia, are now close to completion
In 1936, when I was three years old, my family moved to Palestine. As a child I was an inveterate listener-in to adult conversations and after watching my father strap a revolver to his side before taking out a team to repair sabotaged telephone lines I became acutely aware of the political tensions that were ripping Palestine apart. Later,the struggle came even closer to home when Jewish extremists blew up a wing of the King David Hotel,where my father had his office,and killed over 90 civilians. You can imagine how I felt as we waited to find out whether our father had survived. We were fortunate. Our father was only slightly wounded.
On returning to England I attended Walthamstow High School and from there went to Leicester University College, where I took a degree in Latin and married a fellow student.
On graduating, I retrained as a primary teacher and,specialised, so as far as primary teachers can specialise, in drama, environmental studies, and late in my career, IT skills. My favourite time of the school day was always the end-of-afternoon story telling. My writing developed from these oral stories.
After retirement, I became an enthusiastic convert to new media writing and became a mentor for a now defunct International Community for On-line Writers.
I now run three websites. This one is named after the trilogy I am working on and is devoted to my writing. The garden journal I have updated monthly since 1999 can be found at my Granny's Garden site. The third website, a freebie , is an introductory portal.
My days are occupied with family, including two great grandchildren, WRVS books-on-wheels projects, working on the Leicester Writers' Club committee (I am the president this year, gardening, updating my web pages, and of course, writing both for the computer screen and for paper.
I can truthfully say that retirement has been the most fulfilling part of my life and recommend it to anyone staying on at work purely because they are afraid of becoming bored.
