Hello from Beth Francis

Hi I'm Beth Francis. I'm currently working on a pocket novel set during a glorious hot summer on Anglesey. Well I do write fiction!

 

The views of Snowdonia from my window are obscured by torrential rain so I'm having to raid my memories of summers past. Now when was it we had that long drought? 1978?

Hello from Anne Bennett

 My name now is Anne Bennett but I was born Anne Marie Flanagan for both my parents came from the North of Ireland and were staunch Roman Catholics.  I was born and bred a Brummie but taught always to be proud of my Irish roots and so I grew up with a foot in both camps as it were and this was brought into play when I was began writing seriously.

I based my books in the main in areas I knew in Birmingham, the Inner Ring where I spent my first seven years, Aston, Pype Hayes the massive estate we were moved to under slum clearance in 1956 and Erdington and districts around there.  I always link Ireland in some way and this is usually the North which I know better than the South as we have relatives there and we spent all our holidays there as I was growing up and still go back now.  The book "Danny Boy" was different in that, as I wrote about the uprising in 1916, I had to choose a village closer to Dublin to base my family  and I chose Blessington  in County Wicklow.  I spent a few days there talking to people particularly the Blessington Local and Family History Society who had helpfully  written a book, called "Blessington Now and Then" which was an immense help to me.

My latest book "Far From Home"  tells the tale of Kate Munroe, driven from her home in Donegal because she was in love with a man forbidden to her and she settles in Stockland Green an area adjoining Erdington because she has friends there.  Her sister Sally joins her three years later and together with Kate's friend, Susie, encourage Kate to go out with David Burton who is besotted with her.  Eventually, she feels the same and they have a hasty marriage because war clouds are gathering and David wants to join the Air Force.  When war is declared Kate and her sister and Susie volunteer to become ARP Wardens.  David is posted as missing after the Fall of Singapore and Kate is overwhelmed with grief and in the middle of this, as a result of her ARP work, she discovers something that rocks her whole world as she realises that things are not what they seem and that she has been lied to all her life.

Hurrah

Hi Everyone,



My name is Anne Bennett now  although it used to be Anne- Marie Flanagan and there are no prizes for guessing where my parents came from.  So though I was a Brummie born and bred in Birmingham,  I was brought up to treasure my roots and my parents were also staunch Roman Catholic.  Because of this I always felt that I had a foot in both camps as it were and when an accident put paid to my teaching career and I began to write in earnest, though I had been scribbling for years, that is what I wrote about.  I spent the first seven years of my life in a back to back house very near the city centre. We were moved in 1956 to a council house in a massive estate called Pype Hayes Estate to the north of the city and quite near  Fort Dunlop where my father worked.

So the books I write are mainly based either in the inner ring of Birmingham or in Pype Hayes or near by Erdington or Aston which I also knew quite well and the Irish link is usually in the North where my parents came from and where out school holidays were spent.  "Far From Home" which was out in January  was based in Stockland Green which runs alongside Erdington and the area my husband grew up in.  Stockland Green has changed a great deal, but  the areas I grew up in and Aston bear no resemblance to the times I write about and so I must research it as thoroughly as I possibly can to get it right.  I am asked many a time why I write about the war years and the reason is because I am fascinated by the way ordinary people coped with six years of war when their lives were often turned upside down and they often also had the worry of loved ones away fighting

In "Far From Home", the elders sister of a Donegal family, Kate Munroe is almost forced to leave home for she falls desperately in love with a man forbidden to her and she settled in Stockland Green because she had friends there..  When her sister, Sally joins her three years later she is surprised to find Kate still grieving for her lost love, but urged by Sally and her friend Susie Mason she agrees to date David Burton and eventually falls in love with him. But war clouds are gathering and they are married hastily before David joins the Royal Air Force.   Kate and Sally volunteer for work as ARP Wardens and when David is posted missing Kate thinks she will never be able to cope with the loss of him .  And then, through her ARP work, she discovers something that rocks her whole world for she realises nothing is as it seems and she has been lied to all her life.