Truelight Books

As it is a new year, I thought I'd tell you a bit about my past life.I grew up in Wales during WWII but when I was almost 9 we went back to Kent where my mother had a clothing and shoe shop. We lived in a small village near Canterbury and I eventually went to the grammar school there for 6years. while I was there, I came to love the fine cathedral and often walked past it on the way to music lessons weekly.
Canterbury dates back to Roman times and there is the oldest church in England called St Martins which dates from Anglo-Saxon times; from there, the cathedral was planned by St Augustine. I was fortunate enough to write about Canterbury in the 15th Century, working in the cathedral library in the winter of 1958 break and in March1959 again.
After getting my degreein July '59 at the University of Southampton, I married a scientist who had a job in Kuala Lumpur to do research on rubber trees. Within weeks of arrival, I taught part-time and then got a job in a mission high school for girls, run by the nuns. I spent happy years there teaching history and English to girls doing exams sent from UK. we left Malaysia in 1964.
We had the experience of travelling overland to England , using a Ford Dormobile. We picked up the car in Calcutta,drove through India, went up to Kashmir and eventually went to Lahore Pakistan and onto Iran, Iraq and Jerusalem.This too us about 6 weeks and we left Jerusalem( after seeing Bethlehem) to go north through Damascus to Turkey. we spent a few days in Istanbul and went on to Riejka in Yugoslavia then through Switzerland to Germany and the UK. It was the journey of a lifetime because it would be hard to pass through the Middle Eeast these days.
Nine months later,my husband had a new post as a research scientist in Harrow and we have stayed here every since,bringing up two girls and later, two boys.I have taught in essex County for 23 years and, retiring a little early, I have been writing for children mainly about what Essex county has offered me and of course you, in places to visit and ideas that come from them. My first book was about the wonderful Harrow Fair that we all love to go to in late August near Labour day. This past year was a first for this fair that had gone for 165 years without a break. I hope we can have it in 2021. Since then I have written 18 books and I hope you will get to know more about them.
I rarely tell this story above but hope you can see why I love to write about places I have seen or know well. One place is jack Miner's Bird Sanctuary where Jack started to protect birds over 116 years ago.I asked his son about permission to write a story about an immigrant girl visitng the Sanctuary and he agreed. Since then I have the novel about Mei Ling and another picture book about the geese.Take a look below. They are also available in the Essex County Library;they maybe even in your shool library too!

We attended church on Sunday last and I am thinking of fhe Christmas service we will not have together. But we have the joy of believing that God who created us, chose to come down and reveal himself as the baby Jesus. He was and is the word, John speaks about in his Gospel Chapter 1He was there in the beginning and He is still there for us in His Word, the Bible.
A singular word can change the world. The Word of God created us, and it comes to us in flesh through Jesus; it has been given to you and me. If we do not listen carefully, we can miss it being spoken to us. If we do not embody and share it ourselves, we miss the opportunity to be transformed and to bring transformation. This world yearns for a word. This world yearns for His messenger. Accept the call this day, to receive that Word, to embody it, and, most importantly, to share it. Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us and Mary gave birth to Jesus, our Saviour.
Listen to a song about her and Jesus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uki0dkthzI
This is why I write a book like Surprise, Surprise. God is a surprise.