About Me

I’m Valerie. I was born in London and I’ve lived in Surrey for most of my life. I’ve always been a voracious reader.

When I was young, my mother declared that if I had my nose in a book, she could offer me a five-pound note and I wouldn’t even hear her. (A fiver! That dates me!)

When I left school I became a Veterinary Nurse. I’d always wanted to work with animals, although I was strongly attracted to drama and, encouraged by my English teacher, flirted for a while with the idea of trying for a Drama College. But the animals won, and I became a trainee RANA at the Blue Cross Animal Hospital at Hammersmith.

After seven years I became Head Nurse and the hospital had central heating put in. This was significant for me as I ended up marrying the engineer!

I spent the next twenty-seven years driving a truck around the building-sites of London, loaded to the gunnels with bogpans and boiler sections, copper tube and drainpipes and the occasional smelly contents of a grease-trap.