Some books take a long time coming together. This one was "mulled" around in the author's mind for about 20 years before it emerged - based on family stories, overseas trips and a brother's handwritten notes.
Good things take time
A great grandchild of the family traces her roots from early 20th century Somerset England, to Johannnesburg South Africa, and to Christchurch NZ in 1922
Opening the box and seeing the first copy
Mary was a teacher of English language and literature in NZ secondary schools for 40 years.
Apart from a strong childhood bond with her grandmother she had no real knowledge of the family's history until her brother, a Dean at Canterbury University began to research and record it in a rather dry academic account.
At about the same time Mary took a writing course and used one of the family stories for a short story exercise. Her tutors surprised her by telling her she had just written the first chapter of a novel. Her brother was delighted at the way she had brought his research alive and made her promise to write a novel.
And so the book was born.
Mary took trips to South Africa and Somerset, England to acquaint herself with the ancestral landscapes and mulled over the family stories and the shape of the book.
BriarsBooks generated 18 small pencil sketches for the head of each chapter - a touch Mary hadn't planned but welcomed.
Kidnapped during the miners' strikes
Meeting grandpa back in England
Her brother's research gave her the dates, places and events, the people and places were real, and Mary worked the family stories into 120 pages of warm, engaging prose - some of it fictionalised but always true to history.
The book is self-published for family, friends and associates and Mary will do her own distribution. 100 copies with easy print-on demand options if she needs more books. Mary used the services of BriarsBooks to design the book's layout and create the cover and illustrations.