Stranger than Fiction

Stranger than fiction? You couldn’t make this up!

Well, I didn’t!

A chance encounter on a ship. Covid-19. Furloughed at 73. What to do? Will she remember me? A fortuitous connection with fame. A surprise reaction. No matter how brilliant, every author needs an editor. A published work. The absolute joy of achievement!

This is a brief synopsis of what happened to me in 2020.

As a reasonably well-educated person who did English at “A” Level and read Classics at University, it may come as a surprise that I had not read a book for over 50 years yet alone considered writing anything. That all changed when, on a fruitless cruise to witness the Northern Lights in March 2020, I met Susan Cohen, the publisher CEO of the “Wee Book Company”. 

Having inflicted a few events that had happened to me on this poor, defenceless woman, she suggested that I should write a book. “How do I do that?” I enquired. “Every night when you get home from work, train yourself to write something, be it a list of events or actual prose. When you have mustered 50 or 60 pages send them to me and I’ll let you know what I think.” 

This short conversation was an inspiration to me. It felt like a religious conversion.

When we disembarked from that ship, we were told that Covid 19 had taken hold and by the time we had reached home I had discovered that the Company I worked for had had to furlough me because of my age.

What to do?

I absolutely knew that I had to write, long hand of course, and that it would be my autobiography. 4 weeks later it was job done! No chance of Karen, my partner, typing that lot. Solution? Techy friend Gareth from work came up with the answer. “Read it onto your phone and email it to Karen’s computer.” 3 weeks later that was complete. Now to put the text right, removing the multitudes of expletives that had somehow entered the wording, and then redo the punctuation. 4 weeks. The whole exercise had taken 11 weeks, all done just in time before the Company decided that I was irreplaceable and called me back to work.

Did I have the nerve to phone Susan Cohen? Would she even remember me?

I did, and she did. I sent her the paper copy of the book. 

I couldn’t believe my luck when Susan told me that she had handed the manuscript on to the famous author of “The Bigamist” and “The Psychopath”, Mary Turner Thomson. I was staggered when Mary got in touch to tell me that she really liked the book but, like even the most brilliant of authors, I needed an editor.

How right she was, and it was through her wonderful mentoring, encouragement and superb editing that “Life is not a Rehearsal” was published.

I cannot calibrate the joy that I felt as a celebration of that achievement. 

Now I was hooked. “All Square”, a short novella followed in quick time and then, completely out of the blue, Mary suggested that I should consider writing a children’s book. This was something that I would never have thought of and now I had to find an idea to build on.

Horses, particularly racehorses, had played a huge part in mine and Karen’s lives and we owned some really special ones. The most charismatic and naughtiest of these horses was “Kumakawa”, an 8-time winner who didn’t want to race anymore when he got to 9 years old and who now, at the age of 25, lives in the beautiful hillsides of South Wales along with his faithful guardian, collie dog Daisy.

These two incredible animals were my inspiration, along with Karen’s grandson, Max, and Evelyn, the young daughter of one of our neighbours.

I put these two children in charge of teaching Kuma and Daisy the skills of Karate and Ballet and I am certain that all four of them were delighted to be in a book.

Of course, the illustrations always “make” a children’s book and I was oh so lucky to meet Charlie Harding, our superb illustrator, also completely by accident through a friend. Charlie is a local artist and my friend saw one of her drawings on one of his customer’s walls. The rest is history as they say. A dream come true.

Then, of all things, I realised that Kumakawa is such a really special horse and that he too has had an amazing life. He needed to write his own autobiography! I had all his records until he was 9 and Helen McCarthy, his wonderful owner in Wales, had kept impeccable records of his next 16 years. It was a no brainer and the words seemed to tumble from my pen and into his mouth. I am really proud of this book “Kumakawa My True Story”

Up to date now and I have completed the text of the 3rd of The Kumakawa Adventure books. This one is entitled “Today He’s Australian” and Charlie is just putting the finishing touches to her paintings. All very exciting.

Our aim is to launch this book at “The Presents Galore” Christmas Fayre to be held at Newmarket Racecourse on the 24th, 25th and 26th November this year.

This whole writing thing has been a journey that I didn’t expect to venture on but it’s a most unexpectedly great feeling and I love every second that I am writing and the disbelief about what I have written when it is complete. 

It’s a massive thank you to Susan, Mary, Karen, Helen and Charlie for everything and also to Kumakawa, Daisy, Max and Evelyn for the inspiration behind the children’s books.