When I was three weeks old my mother took me from Aberdeen, Scotland, back to Wales where I spent a very happy childhood. I grew up speaking Welsh and English which much later on helped me to learn the Greek language.
When I was 10 we moved to live in Runcorn, near Warrington, England and later to Liverpool. I attended The Queen Mary High School for Girls. I married my first love in 1961 when I was 20 years old and moved to live in Wallasey, Cheshire where I had my son, Jamie in 1963.
Sadly, my husband left us when my son was a year old but these things happen.
I married for the second time when Jamie was 10 years old and I hoped for happiness, but after 3 years I found he was cheating on me, and I faced another traumatic divorce.
Three years later I married again, but realized that my third husband did not really want my son around. This caused another marriage breakdown.
When I was 40 years old I met my fourth husband, Tony who has been more than a wonderful husband and father to my son.- So I got a ‘good one’ in the end! - The moral is, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again.
We shared a remarkable adventure, which tested our relationship when Tony was made redundant in 1991. I wanted to share all of our varied experiences with other ‘dreamers’ who might have liked to ‘opt out’ of the rat race on a Greek island, so I wrote my first book entitled : "Chasing Dreams in Lefkas." Available on Amazon
I wrote it as soon as we returned while all the memories were fresh in my mind in 1992.
This is not meant to be a ‘cleverly written book’. I know there are mistakes that I would not make now. But it was simply a way of sharing and maybe giving people a laugh at some of the amusing things that we did. It’s always funny to hear about a pair of ‘old hippies’ making fools of themselves. On reflection, it was usually me that did that; Tony is much too sensible. We still reflect on our time in Lefkas and feel that we would not have missed all the experiences for the world.
Sometimes you have to measure your success by what you had to give up to achieve it.
I have now learnt to write so much better than when I wrote my first book. So I apologize for the mistakes. The manuscript lay in our attic for 17 years. Then I sent it via email to the US and Eloquent books published it. 'warts an' all' - I hope it might inspire people facing redundancies almost two decades on to do something they might never have done.
I have since written a book for young children: “Granny’s Magic Garden.” - To be released in a couple of months. These stories are what I told my two grandsons, George and Freddie when they were very young. They made them laugh, so I wanted to share them with other children. I hope they make them laugh too.
I have also written two romantic novels this year, which will be released next year, 2010 : “It Mattered Yesterday” & “A Moment to Remember.” Both are taken from experiences in my life.
I hope people enjoy them. Thanks for reading,
Blessings and smiles, Diane J