BIOGRAPHY

I was born on a Yorkshire farm and attended Agricultural College after leaving school. While there I won my first award for writing - nothing romantic, or historical - it was an essay on Breeding Better Dairy Cattle. I spent some months in South Wales and, after finishing college, I worked at a Ministry of Agriculture Experimental Farm in Nottinghamshire. There I learned the truth of Mark Twain’s famous statement - “There are lies, damned lies and statistics.”

Some of my grandparents were Scottish so I had a yearning to see Scotland for myself. I came to work in Dumfriesshire, in South West Scotland. It is an area noted for romance with the famous Blacksmith shop and weddings over the anvil at Gretna Green.

I met and married my husband, a dairy farmer and I have never had cause to regret either move. We moved to our present farm in 1970 with our three small children. As well as breeding pedigree Friesian cattle my husband, Bob, was a well known breeder and judge of Clydesdale Horses. Readers will find many references to the satisfactions and trials of farm life in my novels. They are based on reality, but my characters are entirely fictitious. I hope the experiences of life and love, even of birth and death, add depth and realism to the people in my novels.

I came fairly late to writing for publication and I had just had my eighth novel published when my husband died in 1994. Apart from my own family there are others who depend on the farm for their livelihood so I had a few years break from writing fiction while we all came to terms with changes and reorganisation.

Farmhouses are like Number Ten Downing Street, they go with the job so I moved to a bungalow near the farm recently following my son's marriage. I am still surrounded by fields and animals as well as my daughter's farm ice cream parlour which is just along the road. These continue to supply the background for my books, along with my grandchildren, who keep me young at heart.

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[Click picture for a larger version]

My hobbies include gardening and reading, and I am a member of our local church and guild. I also enjoy local history and folklore. The picture below shows the Auld Brig or Devorgilla Bridge over the river Nith, Dumfries. The original wooden bridge was built by Lady Devorgilla in the thirteenth century and it is named after her. Her story provides much romantic inspiration. Her husband was John Balliol and together they were responsible for founding Balliol College Oxford.

When her husband died she had his heart embalmed in an ivory casket and carried it with her wherever she went. She arranged the building of a new abbey, Sweetheart Abbey, the remains of which can still be viewed to day. Lady Devorgilla was buried there with her husband’s heart upon her breast.

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This picture of 'Devorgilla Brig' is from an original painting by Dumfries artist John Clark who runs his own gallery in Brooke St, Dumfries. Commission queries can be answered by contacting landscapesjclark@hotmail.com

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