Confession time!

So: how are you all, and how was your Christmas? A long time ago? Yes, and I know I haven't written anything on this blog since November. It's been a long, difficult winter, and without wanting to sound sorry for myself, I've had such a lot of physical pain since October that I really haven't done much with my time. I've had a slipped disc, but the worst of it was the horrible, unrelenting sciatica that went with it. When I finally got to see a consultant, after Christmas, he said it should clear up on its own and normally does so within 3 to 6 months. I'm still waiting for a physio appointment. But ... fingers crossed, the pain is easing, and I can actually walk a little way down the road now. And spring might be on the way soon. So: onwards and upwards! And with that in mind ...

I had a really nice fan message through my Olivia website this morning, from a reader saying how much she enjoyed my books and asking when the next one would be out. While I can't pretend I'm inundated with fanmail, I do get messages like this every now and then, and they really do cheer me up. I normally respond that I'm working on the next book and will let them know when it's out. But today, for some reason, I felt like being a bit more honest. After all, it's been 18 months now since 'Tales from a Honeymoon Hotel' was published and perhaps I owe my readers a little more than this half-truth, and keeping them hanging on. And perhaps I owe all of you that, too!

It's a common tale in publishing now. 'Mid-list author' produces several books that sell OK but not brilliantly; editor likes her books and is keen to keep publishing her, but eventually the editor is overruled and the author is dropped by the publisher. When it happened to me, I was devastated. Rejection is part of our lives as writers; I'm so used to having short stories rejected, I barely even blink now when it happens, and my first novel was rejected by so many agents and publishers before Piatkus accepted it, I thought I was dreaming when I got that first contract!
But this was a far bigger blow - it actually hurt my pride and made me feel exactly the way I did when I lost my job, all over again. Or even worse!

It did help that I knew my lovely editor had been 'on my side'; she took me out to lunch a few months later and we've stayed friends. And it also helped that, by a stroke of good luck, I'd acquired an agent for the first time just a couple of months before this happened. At least, I thought it was good luck! My agent seemed almost as devastated by the news as I was, and appeared to be fired up with enthusiasm on my behalf. 'Don't worry,' she said. 'I'll find you another publisher.' So, when just another couple of months later I received a very short e-mail from her saying she was leaving the business, giving up being an agent, and wishing me all the best - I was shocked to say the least! I don't think it was anything I said!

For a long while, I only told my family and closest friends about all this. Then I started noticing that I wasn't alone: other writers were freely admitting that they'd been 'dropped', and there was a lot of discussion going on about the economics of publishing, and how the current situation was hitting those of us who were neither 'big names', nor exciting new talent. It wasn't just me! I began to realise it wasn't personal - I shouldn't feel a failure. I've had eight books published, and even if it never happens again, I've achieved my dream.

However, of course, I do want it to happen again! And knowing that I've got fans, readers out there who want me to be published again, really helps to spur me on. So after months and months of fruitlessly submitting my completed novel in all directions, with the 'overcrowded market for this type of women's fiction' being mentioned in virtually every rejection, and after completing the second novel in that series but having nowhere to send it, I decided it was time to change direction. I'm now working on a completely different type of book. It's slow going, because I'm out of my comfort zone and I have no idea whether what I'm writing is any good or not. It's not so much that my confidence was knocked by what's happened (although of course, it was!) but that I haven't yet acquired any confidence in writing this type of book! I'm a beginner all over again.

But I'm a beginner with the advantage, now, of some experience. I'm still being asked to give talks about writing - and in those talks, I usually describe some of the realities of being a writer in today's world - including the fact that the majority of published authors earn peanuts, which is a big shock to some audiences! And in between working on the new venture, I'm still having short stories published (as Sheila Norton, as always) - having been thrilled (not to say amused) to be described as one of 'This Month's Big Names' on the front cover of a recent fiction special! I'm also selling some features - currently working on another one for 'Writers' Forum' and have just sold a short article to one of the cat magazines! I'm also trying to find an e-publisher for my out-of-print titles.

So this isn't a whine, or a complaint: I've been very fortunate to have the success I've had so far, and I never forget that plenty of writers might give a lot to be in my shoes, despite what's happened. On the contrary: the reason I've decided to 'go public' with this story is that I've realised it's more helpful to show how things really are, than to try to pretend everything in the garden is lovely and coming up roses! The reality is that people seem to enjoy my books when they actually get to read them - but like those of most less well-known authors, they're usually tucked away at the back of the shop (if they're in them at all) and only promoted by one person - me! I do my best ... but I can't generate the sort of sales the big publishers are looking for.
But thank goodness for libraries! And that's the subject of the next feature I'm writing for 'Writers' Forum', so I'll let you know when it's due to be published.

Perhaps I should write a new feature about 'how to survive being dropped by your publisher'! Well, thanks for 'listening' and sorry I'm so bad at being a regular blogger. Must Try Harder!

China: the whole story! (Part 2)

So - now we were in Chengdu - another major Chinese city. Like the others we'd visited, it was busy, vibrant and modern: frantic traffic (bikes as well as cars etc!), sky-scraper buildings, and - most surprisingly to us - the shops were crowded with people spending their money on expensive consumer goods, especially clothes.

The pic shows a typical scene of cyclists crossing a busy junction!

From Chengdu we had a day-trip to Leshan where we took a boat trip to view the Grand Buddha carved into the river bank. You can see how massive it is, from the relative size of the people in this picture!

But for many of us, the Panda Centre was the highlight of our time in Chengdu. It was wonderful to see the pandas so close-up - and to see how well looked-after they are. The Chengdu Panda Centre is the world centre for panda breeding, and it was amazing to see the tiny, tiny baby pandas being cared for in the nursery - lying in incubators on pink or blue blankets like little premature human babies. We weren't allowed to take photos of those, though, sadly.

From Chengdu, we flew to Guilin, and the next day we had a lovely cruise on the Li River, from Guilin to Yangshuo. The scenery on the Li was spectacular, made even more atmospheric by the weather, which was misty and drizzly. The main feature of the scenery in this area is the strange shaped Karst hills - formed from weathered limestone.

We returned to Guilin by coach the next day, and had the opportunity to see some countryside around the Yangshuo area - rice paddies, water buffalo, and people working in the fields.

That evening at Guilin was spent watching the fishermen on the River Li, fishing with cormorants. You might have seen this in a TV advert! Some people think it's cruel because the cormorants have their necks tied so that they can't swallow the fish they catch - but they are untied afterwards and fed some fish from the catch. And (although I'm vegetarian and detest fish in particular!) I don't suppose it's any less kind to the birds than it is to the fish! The only negative, for us, was that the fishing we saw was just a display for the tourists. I'm sure that when they do it for a living, they choose quieter places on the river, don't have two boatfuls of tourists taking photos, and catch a lot more fish!

Before leaving Guilin the next day, we climbed Brocade Hill for a view over the city and surrounding hills.

Then we took our final internal flight - to Shanghai, and transferred by coach to Suzhou, 'The Garden City'. Here we had a cruise on the canal, seeing the old part of the town, before visiting the two famous gardens, strangely named The Master of the Nets Garden and the Humble Administrator's Garden! The latter was the bigger, and was very beautiful - with all the usual Chinese garden features of bridges, pagodas and lakes, as well as plants and trees including Bonsai trees.

We returned to Shanghai by coach the next day, and spent our final three days there. It was quite a relief to be in one place for three days after all the travelling! And there was so much to see in Shanghai, which was of course even busier and more modern and vibrant than any of the other cities!

As well as visiting the museum and spending time at the famous riverside area (The Bund), we went to the top of the Jinmao Centre Tower to enjoy the views over the city, and also had a ride on the amazing new Maglev train - it runs at incredibly high speed by magnetism! (Sorry, I don't understand the physics - but it was certainly fast!).

We also had an evening cruise on the Huangpu River to admire the night scenery.

The last day of our tour was 1st October - which was the beginning of the Chinese National Holiday - lasting a whole week. This meant the city was even more crowded with tourists than usual, because people from outlying parts of China came to spend their holidays in Shanghai (especially as the Expo exhibition was taking place). Some of these Chinese nationals from more rural areas obviously weren't used to seeing Western tourists, and we got plenty of attention from people staring and laughing at us (good-naturedly, but very openly!) and even taking photos of us. Apparently the Chinese refer to Western people as 'Big Noses' or 'Long Noses' - because of the obvious difference in our facial features! Those of us with fair hair, and those who were particularly tall, got the most attention. I began to wish I'd taken some of my business cards with me to hand out ('Yes, you can take my photo. Did you know I'm an author'?)!

The crowds made it quite difficult to move around: the sea of people in the main shopping areas was quite intimidating, especially as so many of them carry umbrellas - both when it's raining, and when it's sunny. We were glad the timing of our tour had avoided the rest of the National Holiday!

Nevertheless we enjoyed the whole tour and would definitely recommend it - and also the tour company we used (Wendy Wu Tours). Our tour guide Maggie was absolutely fantastic - she was with us for the whole three weeks and as well as giving us so much information, she looked after us like a little mother hen, especially when people were sick (unfortunately, about 90% of our group caught a nasty virus, some being more ill than others). The tour was very good value for money, including three meals every day and the hotels we stayed in were all good.

Would I go back? Probably not, as I feel that I've seen everything I wanted to see, and there are lots of other places in the world I'd still like to see, (given the time, health and money!). If you want to visit China - I'd say go sooner rather than later, as it will only become more crowded, more expensive, and more tourism-driven as they become an even bigger world power.

China: the whole story! (Part 1)

Some of you asked me to tell you more about our tour of China. I've waited till now, as it took me a long time to go through the hundreds of photos we took ... and having chosen the best ones, I made them into a photobook which has now been delivered. So, with my book open in front of me to remind me of everything we did and saw, I can now take you through the tour and show you some more pics!

We started off in Beijing. It was mid-September and very hot - about 35 degrees - but most of the time it was overcast. This is a feature of the weather there, because of the pollution apparently.

However we did see some sunshine on our first day, visiting the Temple of Heaven

and then the Forbidden City.

Everywhere was very crowded. Tourism in China has become very popular during the last few years - not just with overseas visitors but also Chinese people, now they are becoming more affluent, wanting to see the sights for themselves.

One exception was Tiananmen Square, which is so huge it didn't seem crowded! There's very heavy security in the square, police very conspicuous, and our guide told us that no discussion of (as they refer to it) the 'incident' in 1989 is allowed.

One of the most striking things, was the cleanliness everywhere: not a scrap of litter, no graffiti anywhere. (Our tour guide was bemused when we asked about graffiti - she couldn't understand what it was). I'm sure there would be very heavy penalties for litter dropping!

On the second day in Beijing we visited the Great Wall of China. There are apparently several places where the Wall can be accessed from the Beijing area, so I don't know how they compare in terms of difficulty etc. We started out early, with the aim of beating the crowds - and I certainly wouldn't have liked to be there later in the day! - as in places where the steps were narrow, there was quite a bit of pushing and shoving through the crowds. This is another feature of life in China which surprised us, by the way: the people are so very polite in so many ways, and yet we were shocked by the way they push and shove! - not caring who is elbowed out of the way, old or young, man or woman. I guess it comes from living in such crowded cities but I was nearly knocked over on several occasions, finding it hard to stand my ground and push back!

The average age of our tour group was probably 60+, and our guide warned us to take the climb steadily and not go further than we could manage. The steps up the Wall were uneven and many were steep. I'm normally reasonably fit but had a bit of a bad back at the time, so didn't climb right to the top.

Himself went on ... only to turn back soon, saying the view wasn't much better from the top because of the cloud/mist.

Nevertheless it was an impressive sight and an experience I wouldn't have wanted to miss.

Later that day we were taken to the old area of Beijing (the Hutong), where we were driven around on a rickshaw. I just felt sorry for the guys pedalling the bikes. We're not particularly massive people but bigger than most Chinese! - and pulling the weight of two of us must have been really hard work. Of course, this was all laid on specifically for the tourists, including a visit to a 'typical' home. I felt a little uncomfortable as we all crowded into this lady's tiny house and nosed around ... but I suppose she is being well paid for opening her home to the likes of us.

The third day in Beijing, we visited the Summer Palace. It's situated in lovely gardens on a lake, which made a nice contrast from the crowded city streets. Later we were taken to see the Olympic Village - and in the evening, saw a very impressive acrobatic show. There were several shows during the course of our trip - some included in the schedule, others 'optional extras', and all were different and definitely worth seeing.

From Beijing, we flew to Xian, famous for the Terracotta Warriors. This was definitely a highlight. I'd seen photos, of course, and had naively believed that when the warriors were first discovered, they'd looked exactly the way they do now - but no, they were lying in pieces and have been painstakingly put together ... a process that's still ongoing. The ranks of completed warriors in the pits is an absolutely amazing sight. Every one's face is different! The hairstyles and various features indicate their rank. I particularly liked the cavalry men, and the kneeling archers which are preserved under glass in the museum.

We had a hot sunny afternoon for our stroll on Xian city walls, which are decorated with all manner of flamboyant animal and flower illuminations: I'd like to have seen it at night. We also visited the Muslim quarter of Xian, including the Great Mosque which was a peaceful oasis in the city.

On the last morning in Xian -which happened to be our Ruby anniversary! - we visited the Little Wild Goose pagoda - again, set in beautiful gardens. The Chinese love their parks and public gardens by the way - because most of them live in apartment blocks in the cities and don't have any open space of their own. We were astonished by the crowds of people in all the parks, often doing tai-chi or impromptu line-dancing or keep-fit in big groups! They also sit in the parks to play mah-jong or cards, to chat together, knit or play music together. Our guide explained that the retirement age is 55 and retired people enjoy their social lives in the parks, which benefits their physical and mental health.

That afternoon, we took our next flight, to Wuhan, and from there we had a long coach journey to the beginning of our Yangtse River cruise.

We boarded our boat in the evening. Himself and I had decided to splash out on an upgraded cabin - as it was a special occasion - and the facilities and comfort on the boat were very good. We spent three days on the Yangtse; each morning there was a shore excursion, and the afternoons were spent resting on the boat, watching the scenery, which was quite a pleasant break in an otherwise hectic schedule!

The first morning, we visited the Three Gorges Dam, which was an impressive sight, probably far more interesting to those with technical minds (!).

But the next day's trip was more up my street - a cruise to the Shennong stream (a tributary of the Yangtse), where we were 'loaded' onto 'pea-pod' boats and rowed along the stream by a team of very strong guys (again, I felt sorry for them!). The scenery was lovely and we enjoyed such things as the music of a pipe being played by a goat-herd on the bank of the stream ... until we were told that he was actually a government employee who was there purely as a tourist attraction! There was quite a lot of this kind of thing!

The final trip on the Yangtse cruise was to the riverside town of Fengdu, known as the City of Ghosts, where the many shrines and statues depict judgement day and the tortures of hell. Actually a lot nicer than it sounds!! This was a drizzly day, and as the ghost city was at the top of a mountain we went up there by cable car rather than walking up in the rain. That afternoon, it rained properly for the first time, putting an end to our afternoons of sunbathing on the boat! The weather became much more unsettled after this, with less heat and some showery days.

We ended the cruise at Chongqing, another huge Chinese city and major port, from where we were driven to Chengdu for the next part of our tour. Which seems a good place to pause ...

To be continued!

Writers' Forum feature - and an event last night

The December edition of 'Writers' Forum' has just landed on my doormat - and I'm pleased to say it contains the feature I wrote back in the spring, about novelists who start off as short story writers. I found it a really interesting piece of research to do - and many of you helped me by telling me about your own experiences. So if you want to read my findings ... get your copy of the magazine as soon as you see it in the shops! And thanks again of course, to all those who helped with this project.

The various ways we arrive at our destination as published novelists is always one of the topics discussed when I'm part of an author panel at a writing event. I took part in one such event last night at Gants Hill Library, near Ilford - with fellow authors Sue Moorcroft, Jean Fullerton, Juliet Archer and Heidi Rice (in that order in the picture). Believe it or not, the colour co-ordination of our outfits was completely accidental: great minds must think alike, or we were all in purple moods last night!

It was a really nice evening, although sadly the attendance was depleted by absolutely horrible weather. As always, though, 'the show must go on', and I think those who braved the rain and wind to turn up were interested and appreciative. Those of us on the panel always enjoy ourselves, and for me it was a great opportunity to meet, and chat with, those of the group who I'd only known by name before.

In between my writing projects at the moment, I'm spending a bit of time going through the hundreds of photos that Himself and I took on our trip to China. I'm trying to make a photo-book from the best pictures, and as you can probably imagine it's quite a lengthy job, editing, choosing, deleting, arranging - but it's enjoyable too, especially as it's helping to keep the memories sharp in the ageing brain! I haven't forgotten that I promised to post some more about China on the blog, and I'll be doing that, together with a few more pics, when I've finally finished going through them all.

But for now - back to editing a new short story for People's Friend - the editor likes this one and just wanted a small change made to the ending, so fingers crossed it's a happy ending for me too!

China ... and life in general!

SO! Here we are, back from a very special holiday, planned to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. Well, it had to be special, didn't it - I think we both deserved a bit of a treat for putting up with each other for all these years! The destination was China. I don't quite know how that happened. I'd professed an interest in Canada, and when Himself came back from the travel agent with China brochures I presumed he'd suffered some momentary dyslexia or bad eyesight.

'I've always fancied China,' he explained with a pleading look.

Me? I hadn't, particularly. But then I started looking at those brochures, and I was hooked. So much to see, so many different and exciting places. We swiftly booked a 3-week tour, which we both agreed was great value for money as it included 4 internal flights, two river cruises, all 4-star hotels, 3 meals every day and all admissions to the sights and attractions. We'd never have been able to afford it if we'd done the trip independently.

OK, so I don't like flying (I get horribly air-sick unless I take drugs that make me even dozier than usual), but I just have to get on with it, otherwise we'd never go anywhere. And we'd never done a tour-group type of holiday before (apart from a week on the Nile, which we loved so much we did it twice!) - and we weren't sure whether we'd actually like it. Also I was a little bit worried about what I'd eat and the effects on my digestion (I'm a vegetarian and I - correctly, as it happens! - imagined three weeks on a diet of rice and vegetables). But nothing ventured, nothing gained! (Oh, and I lost half a stone so it wasn't all bad!)

Well, the result was an amazing holiday - and yes, the sights were spectacular. Everyone's asking us what were our favourite places, and it's so hard to choose. I think I particularly enjoyed the scenery on the Li River - very atmospheric, especially as it was misty. The Terracotta Warriors were an awe-inspiring sight. And I just loved seeing the baby pandas at the panda breeding centre. Oh, and the Great Wall, of course!

Our group of 28 people - mostly (ahem) round about our own age-group - were great company. The group was about two-thirds Aussies, one New Zealander and the rest Brits. But I must admit, although a tour is definitely the only way to do a trip like this, it's not the sort of holiday I'd want to do every year. It was a very busy tour, moving on from place to place with a lot of long journeys by coach as well as the flights - and I suppose I missed not having any time to ourselves.

Also, (and obviously), everywhere in China is very crowded!! - the traffic in Beijing, for instance, is the busiest we've ever seen, anywhere in the world. Makes the M25 look like a country lane! And the crowds in Shanghai, especially when they all have their umbrellas up, are actually quite frightening! It was definitely one of the most interesting countries we've visited, but the one I'd least like to live in!! I'd never have the courage to cross a road, for a start! But everywhere was spotlessly clean, with no graffiti or litter to be seen. In fact our tour guide was astonished when we asked about graffiti - we had to explain what it was.

Unfortunately, about 25 of the 28 of us fell victim to a virus that swept through the group like wildfire, affecting some worse than others - and leaving us all with a hacking cough. It didn't spoil the holiday for us: I only felt ill for one day but because I'm asthmatic the cough has really taken a hold - especially as the pollution in China is bad for asthma anyway. Himself didn't go down with the virus till the last day - he rarely gets ill so naturally he thinks it's the end of the world that he's still got a cough, but I think he'll survive!

I'd definitely recommend the trip, and the company we went with (Wendy Wu). It was a very different way of celebrating a special occasion - and we took full advantage by upgrading our cabin on the Yangtse River cruise, as we were on the river for both our anniversary and my birthday! We were treated to cards from all of our 'gang', and a cake, which provided a welcome addition to the rice & veg! (Seriously, the food was actually very good, and it wasn't till the third week that I began to fantasise about cheese sandwiches!).

Sadly, we came home to a horrible shock ... our middle daughter had been admitted to hospital while we were away, and has since been recovering from major surgery. I fully understand why the other daughters didn't tell us: I'd have tried to get a flight straight home. But the upset of this kind-of wiped out all thoughts of the holiday for a while, as you can imagine. I'm only now, two weeks after our return, looking through my photos and remembering it all. Pleased to report she is on the mend, although it's been a horrible time for her and her little family - especially for little Noah who at only 13 months has had to cope with mummy being away in hospital, and since then not being able to pick him up. Luckily his daddy is a great dad, and I know his two aunties did lots to help too, while we were away.

Writing has taken a back seat, needless to say ... but there isn't much to report, apart from the fact that the editor of 'Yours' was frantically trying to get in touch with me while I was away, to accept a Christmas story - which I'm really pleased about as it was a favourite of mine. Meanwhile still waiting to hear back from an agent who requested the whole of my new novel some months back ... trying not to think too much about that.

Tonight we're getting together with our group of close friends - two of whom have also done a tour of China so we'll have a lot to discuss and compare! And tomorrow we're having a quiet lunch in a local pub-restaurant with the immediate family as a delayed Ruby anniversary celebration. We're so lucky to have such a lovely family - they're more important to me than anything in the world. We don't tend to come out and say it. But we all know it's true!

Birthdays

Well, hello! I haven't 'set foot' in this blog for quite a while. I suppose that's because there hasn't been too much to report, writing-wise. I've been concentrating on short stories recently, and my success rate hasn't been bad. Of course, a fair proportion have come winging back, as always - but quite often they end up being accepted elsewhere after changes. And then there are the others - those that eventually get 'shelved' - given up on, after being rejected by everyone. If the message is that clear, I can take the hint! Recent acceptances have been with The People's Friend and Woman's Weekly (my best two markets), and a nice surprise was an acceptance - my first! - with The Weekly News. Even after all these years, it's exciting to be accepted by a completely new (for me) market. Publications recently have been (again!) in The People's Friend and in Yours. My next one will be in the 18 September issue of The People's Friend.



During the past few weeks, we've started looking after our little grandson Noah once a week, now that his mummy has gone back to work. It's been lovely to see him so regularly - and this week is very special, as tomorrow will be his first birthday. We had a family gathering here yesterday to celebrate. Of course, Noah has no idea what all the fuss is about, but it was a good excuse for all of us 'big people' to get together to sample some of the delicious chocolate hedgehog cake his mummy had made (as well as some wine and other goodies!).

Here he is with his mum and dad and The Cake!












And here, with his two lovely aunties - what a lucky boy.


As always, yesterday I found myself remembering similar occasions when the three girls were little themselves. Our first daughter was born in the summer, and her first birthday was in July 1976 - those of you old enough to remember will know that it was the hottest summer for decades, and we took her to the seaside on her birthday, setting the pattern for years to come. Her birthday parties were always held in the garden, with barbecues being the thing as she got older!


Then the second and third babies both came along at Christmas time - so their birthdays inevitably became part of the family celebrations: especially for the youngest daughter, who was born on Boxing Day. We always gave her a party just after Christmas. When they were toddlers they enjoyed having a big joint party between their two birthdays, but of course, once they were at school and making their own friends this wasn't fair, so with two birthday parties just after Christmas, it became a very busy and expensive time in our house!


None of our girls ever had to go to school on their birthdays - one being in the summer holidays and the other two in the Christmas holiday. But, as a September baby (like me!), Noah will be one of the oldest children in his class. But I think it's important to look for the advantages, whatever time of year a baby arrives, and not focus on the negatives. Our Christmas babies could have felt that they missed out in some ways - but on the other hand their birthdays were always at an exciting time, with so much going on and all the family together to celebrate with them. Equally, I don't think our summer baby was disadvantaged from being one of the youngest in her year, despite dire warnings about it: she still did really well at school and got a good degree too, which is a lot more than her September-born mum ever did!



So that's our first year of grandparenthood gone past already - and we decided he's now old enough to buy him his first car! Happy birthday little man!


Well, the next big celebration is our Ruby wedding anniversary, and we're off on an exciting holiday very soon in honour of that. So, as well as some great experiences, I'm hoping to have some good inspiration for my writing! I'll keep you guessing about where we're going ... and promise to write about it on the blog, with some pictures, when we come home.


See you soon -
Olivia/Sheila

Mums, daughters, and good advice!

Tomorrow would have been my mum's 90th birthday. Sadly she passed away three years ago, exactly a week after her 87th birthday. Needless to say, I still miss her, still wonder (as we always do) if I could have done more for her, still feel sad that she didn't live to see her granddaughters' weddings. But this isn't going to be a maudlin post. I just want to tell a story. I know I don't write on this blog very often so I realise there's probably nobody reading it - but that's OK. It's just something I wanted to write!

Mum was born in the East End of London and left school at 14 with a fairly basic education. But she had a determination to 'make something better of herself', and attended evening classes and day-release classes from her job, to get qualifications in English, French, Typing and Shorthand. She progressed to a very good secretarial post, and after my brother and I were born, she began teaching typing in the local college of further education.

Mum and Dad on their wedding day in 1943:

Mum and Dad weren't well off, but we lived in a fairly ordinary suburban semi and my brother and I benefited from grammar school educations. After my O-levels, I had what, in those days, passed as career advice: a short interview with my hated headmistress about what I intended to do. I only knew that I wanted to be a writer, so I planned to train as a journalist after taking my A-levels. But my headmistress quashed this ambition very firmly, telling me that although she believed in me as a writer, I'd never make a journalist as I 'didn't have the right temperament'. Her advice to me was to become a teacher, and use the school holidays to write my novels. I hated the thought of teaching and refused to contemplate this option, so went home in a massive sulk, feeling completely at a loss.

'There's nothing else I want to do,' I told my parents. Journalism had been my one and only idea.

'In that case, why not become a secretary,' said my mum.

I can remember scowling and making some retort along the lines of it being boring. Who wanted to sit in an office all day, typing? Of course, I didn't appreciate that for my mum, becoming a secretary had been the route out of the prospect of dead-end factory jobs - and also that it was all she knew, apart from teaching, which I'd already rejected!

I'd planned on taking my best three subjects at A-level: English, French and Geography - and we needed to be sure these were the best choice for whatever lay ahead. My school (unusually for those times) was very keen on getting as many girls to university as possible, but I decided I wouldn't go unless I needed a degree for a specific job. Secretarial subjects weren't taught at the school - but there was an option - slightly looked down upon - for sixth-formers to take a two-A-level curriculum at school in the mornings and transfer to the college where Mum taught, in the afternoons. When I still hadn't come up with any other career idea weeks later, I gave in grudgingly, dropped the planned Geography A-level and registered for the secretarial course.

Mum wouldn't have me in her typing class. I don't blame her. I was still a bit resentful about the whole thing, still not sure I even wanted to be a secretary at all. I didn't particularly like typing, found shorthand very difficult, and as for 'Secretarial Duties' (yes, that was an exam subject then!) - my friends and I called it 'Secs Duties' with the obvious connotations, and messed about in every class.

Somehow I passed all my exams. Somehow, in those exciting days of publishing during the 1960s, I got a job with Hodder & Stoughton, as secretary to the Rights manager. I didn't stay there: I moved on to work in a fashion company and then to a hospital, eventually becoming a medical secretary and finally finding my niche. To my own absolute amazement, I loved working in the hospital environment and spent almost the rest of my working life doing something that I'd never have imagined wanting to do, when I was at school!

Of course, I also, eventually, fulfilled my ambition to become a writer. Maybe if I'd followed my headmistress's advice it might have happened sooner - who knows? But over the years, I've come to appreciate Mum's advice far more than I ever admitted - or told her. If I hadn't learnt to touch-type, (quite apart from the vast amount of fast typing needed during my working life), I wouldn't be half the writer I am now. I can't imagine not being able to type my own books. Even typing this post would have taken me ten times as long. If I hadn't persevered with Pitman's shorthand, I wouldn't have been much use to my boss when he needed to dictate a quick urgent letter while holding the phone in one hand and his scalpel in the other; and I wouldn't now have the means to scribble quick random passages of prose that come to me in the middle of the night, or on a bus journey, or while watching TV. I can't say much about the 'Secs Duties' though, to be honest!

When my own daughters were teenagers, and at about the stage of choosing their careers, I remember listening to a conversation between them and some friends, when opinions were being given loudly and confidently that NO WAY would they want to work in an office - boring! - and certainly not being somebody's secretary. I smiled and didn't comment. After all, I'd been a lot older than them before I'd finally realised that 'an office' can be so many different things - and being a secretary (maybe not now, but certainly back then) was a good way of experiencing life in different environments before deciding what actually interests you. I never found secretarial work demeaning, either. As the PA of a consultant surgeon, I wasn't in the least subservient: we worked together as a team and he treated me as an equal.

The three girls now (like most of us, really!) all work in offices - all in completely different careers, all happy and successful, and none of them secretaries! Many more options are open to girls now, despite the economic climate. But it worked for me, so thanks, Mum!

There's a nice PS to the story. My first baby was due on Mum's birthday; she arrived three days late, but we often had family gatherings to celebrate their birthdays together. As often seems to happen, Mum and I became much closer when I got married and had my own children, and she adored her granddaughters. And so it's fitting that when I remember Mum at this time of year, I also remember the excitement and pleasure of our lovely eldest daughter's arrival. Happy birthday, baby!

Me with No.1. daughter.