I have always been quite a 'wordy' person throughout my life - writing a long letter was always preferable to making a phone call - and so after I took early retirement from my career as a PA/secretary, I decided to write! As a pet lover, I was influenced from reading a 'diary' of a dog, published in the early 1900's, and consequently decided to put myself in the shoes (paws!) of one of our own cats and put down her day to day activities (or lack of them) and her thoughts on living with humans and the odd things she considers we do! 

The usual GCE's (7) plus secretarial qualifications and also a diploma in illustrating and cartooning.

I first published a paperback 'diary' as written by Truffles the fat tabby cat in 2005, with follow-ups in 2006 and 2007. Apart from letting us know what she was currently getting up to and 'mewsing' about, Truffles also recounted a lot of funny and true events from the past when she was living with our other pets - a St Bernard dog, a Basset Hound, a Macaw parrot, various other cats of all colours and sizes and indoor and outdoor fish! Something for all tastes - fur, fin and feather - and never a dull moment! Sadly all the pets are now in that big basket in the sky with Truffles joining them at the end of 2008 herself nearing 20 years old! Due to the popularity of these diaries, also at the end of 2008 the publishers produced a hardback ominibus edition which I illustrated. Knowing the British public in general are great animal lovers and also great celebrity watchers, in 2009 I hit upon the idea of combining the two so we approached various celebrities from the worlds of entertainment and sport to see if they would send us stories about their own pets which I could compile into a book in aid of a pet charity. Of course, a great many celebrities were too busy to get involved but I was gratified to receive 100 responses, amusing and touching and all clearly showing a genuine love of their pets. Several sent in photos as well. So hopefully people will buy this book as a way of supporting the PDSA who do so much good work for needy and sick pets, and also to satisfy their curiosity as to what celebrity owns what pet! I am also something of a cruise fanatic and was persuaded to write a book about cruising on a modern day ship with all the wonderful facilities and events on board nowadays on these huge palaces on the seas! To make it funnier (I hope!) I have written it through Truffles' eyes and the book has recently been published in July 2011 entitled "All At Sea with Truffles". Hopefully it will appeal to both cat and cruise lovers and may also make those who havn't yet ventured on to a big ship want to do so!

Apex Publishing Ltd: my publication page

Apex Publishing Ltd: my publication page