Wisbech Library to host TEN authors for book fair

Saturday’s event could provide the ideal Christmas gift for the hard-to-buy-for friend or relative, or something to read over the festive period.

Authors include Rani Drew, Midge Gillies, Chris Godwin, John Greening, Jim Kelly, Drew Kinayle, Rose Melikan, Jane Wilson-Howarth, Sylvie Short and Sheila Wood. More information about each author is available below.

Alison Sutton, community and service co-ordinator at Wisbech Library, said: “Join us for a cup of tea and a mince pie, and have a look at the work of 10 authors, who will be available to sign what you buy.

“There will also be a second-hand book sale if you want to stock up on your holiday reading.”

MEET THE AUTHORS

RANI DREW

RANI is a poet and non-fiction writer. She has published poetry and short stories in North American, UK and Indian magazines, some short stories being published in translation in French, Romanian and Hungarian journals. In 2005, Skrev Press UK published ‘Around the World in Twelve Stories’, a collection of short stories. In 2010, Whyte Tracks published her first novel, ‘The Dog’s Tale’. Set in Hungary between the Russian occupation and the Balkan war, life viewed through the eyes of a rescued dog has a touch of Kafka. Buddhist dimensions of Evolution, Disillusionment and Enlightenment influence the dog’s outlook on the place of animals in the human world.

MIDGE GILLIES

MIDGE is a freelance journalist, and the author of seven non-fiction books, including biographies of Amy Johnson and Marie Lloyd. In her most recent book, ‘The Barbed Wire University’ (Arum Press, 2011), she explores what it was really like to be an Allied Prisoner of War in WWll. The true experiences of nearly half a million Allied servicemen held captive during the war were nothing like the Hollywood myth - and infinitely more extraordinary.

CHRIS GODWIN

WHILE recovering from major surgery and reading The Lord of the Rings, Chris realized that fantasy novels weren’t just for the very young. Out of her newfound interest in writing the first Shakar novel was born. Apart from writing, her interests include travel, painting and playing the saxophone. Having enjoyed a full and adventurous life, Chris now lives in the Fens, Cambridgeshire, eastern England, with a cat and a computer for company. The latest book from Chris, Shakar: Blind Ambition is described as an ‘adult fantasy’.

JOHN GREENING

JOHN Greening was born in 1954 in London and has published twelve collections, of poetry, most recently Hunts, Poems 1979-2009 (Greenwich Exchange) His next book, To the War Poets, is forthcoming from Oxford Poets. He reviews regularly for the TLS and is a judge for the Eric Gregory Awards. He has published studies of Yeats, the First World War poets, Edward Thomas, Hardy and Ted Hughes. This year his Poetry Masterclass appeared. Winner of the Bridport Prize and the TLS Centenary Prize, he received a Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors in 2008. Married, with two daughters, he lives and teaches in Huntingdonshire.

JIM KELLY

JIM is an author and a journalist, probably best known for his crime series set in Ely featuring journalist Philip Dryden and his wonderful side-kick Humph. The series won the CSA ‘Dagger In The Library’ award in 2006. His new series, featuring DI Peter Shaw and DS George Valentine is set in North Norfolk. The second, ‘Death Watch’, won the 2011 New Angle Prize for Literature. Jim is published by Penguin.

DREW KINAYLE

ACCORDING to Drew’s twitter intro, she is a ‘published author who loves to read, loves to eat, loves a good laugh - loves animals - did i mention - i love to eat?’ Drew’s first book, ‘Who care’s, introduces us to Remi, who reckons she s the unluckiest person in the world - publicly humiliated on National TV, living with her eccentric old Gran and suffering from acute hypochondria she s forced take on the worst jobs possible working with animals and old people. In doing so, she finds heroes in unexpected places, such as the ninety-six years young Henry, the wonderful and effervescent ladies of the running club and the manic assortment of dogs that she walks. But will she find love in her world filled with gangsters, smugglers and hit men? Who Cares? Remi does...

ROSE MELIKAN

ROSE was born in Detroit, Michigan and moved to Cambridge in 1988. Since 1993 she has been a Fellow of St Catherine’s College, Cambridge and she lectures on British Constitutional History in the University’s Law Faculty. Rose’s gripping historical mystery trilogy, set in England and France in the 1790’s, features the indomitable Mary Finch , introduced to us in ‘The Blackstone Key’. Mary’s adventures continue in ‘The Counterfeit Guest’ and ‘The Mistaken Wife’.

JANE WILSON-HOWARTH

JANE Wilson-Howarth mother, zoologist, GP and author, is an authority on travel health. She has lived in the East for long enough to be able to say diarrhoea in nine Asian lan/guages. ‘A glimpse of eternal snows’ tells the story of the family’s life in Nepal after the birth of their severely disabled son. They chose to return to Nepal, where he could live life to the fullest, unlike England where he would have been treated as ‘a special case’. Jane’s first book, ‘Lemurs of the Lost World’ is about two expeditions to Madagascar and has been described as the finest travel book thus far written about Madagascar.

SYLVIE SHORT

SYLVIE grew up in the Fenland village of Swaffham Prior and was a pupil at Ely High School. Trained as a teacher of English and Drama, she later

gained a Masters Degree in English. After nearly forty years in the teaching profession, sixteen of them as a head teacher, she has retired to concentrate on writing full time. Sylvie has had some success with her first published book, ‘The Bubble’. The second published book called ‘Home to Roost’ is a very readable family saga set in East Anglia: the storyline is based on a traumatic event in the life of someone she knows well. She has also had several short stories published in a magazine and has been commissioned to submit more. Her third novel, ‘Starting Out’, is complete and will be published in 2012. She is currently working on a history of the village of Swaffham Prior. Sylvie has one son, an astrophysicist working for the European Space Agency, and lives in East Anglia with husband Dave.

SHEILA WOOD

SHEILA was born in 1927 in Sheffield where she spent a happy childhood, enjoying life as a teenager on the home front, in spite of the hazards including the Sheffield Blitz - her fervent English patriotism and deep Christian faith forming the cornerstones of her life. She met her husband during service in the ATS and, following the birth of three sons, adopted East Anglia as home, where she moved into nursing and her husband into the Anglican priesthood. Huntingdonshire, Fenland villages, Ely and finally St. Ives embrace ‘So much to remember ‘in her 83rd year.