Miriam Wakerly

Miriam Wakerly's fourth novel 'Secrets in Appley Green', published in 2015, is a '1960s village novel', which makes it 'historical' romance! Hot on its heels came two Kindle volumes of short love stories first published in magazines in the 1980s - 'Rings on our Fingers' and 'Bells on our Toes'.

She was born and brought up in Tetbury, Gloucestershire (of Highgrove fame) but has lived in Surrey for almost 50 years. With a degree in English, French, Sociology and Politics from Leicester University; a mixed working life that usually involved writing one way or another; three adult children and now five grandchildren, she finally settled down to writing novels a couple of years before retirement.

Her third novel, Shades of Appley Green, is set in the same fictional Surrey-Hampshire village as her first two novels, Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served. It is a 'modern village novel' set in around 2012. Her third and fourth novels have nothing to do with Gypsies.

Gypsies Stop tHere was launched the day after she stopped working in 2008. The Gypsy idea was seeded when working in the community supporting single teenage mothers when she thought the services being offered - support and information - should be extended to the Travelling community. Then excited and fascinated by the information she uncovered through reading; talking to Gypsies and Travellers; visiting sites; attending events; exploring websites of related organisations, she knew she had found her theme for a modern novel. More detail on this process can be found in her blog, Miriam's Ramblings. Many questions arose in her mind that her novels try to answer. She felt a need to reach out to people to help foster a better understanding of their current problems and erosion of their culture, but through a page-turner!

In 2010 No Gypsies Served was published, taking aspects of her theme further - looking at events of recent history to help explain current attitudes, for example. It looks back as well as moving forward.

Enjoyed by mainstream readers her first two were, and maybe still are, included on the recommended reading list for diversity police training; and some branches of the Traveller Education Service have used them in adult literacy classes.

She has spoken on radio stations, especially BBC Surrey. She was one of the first Independent Author Members of the Romantic Novelists' Association and a long-standing member of the Society of Authors. A few years ago she ran novel writing workshops and, since April 2016 was a monthly columnist for Surrey Life magazine - writing about people who put life into Surrey villages.

After a long break, enjoying many holidays with her family and husband, plus a new interest in painting, she hopes to embark on a new novel over the next few months.