Words across the world!

I recently received a message from a lady in Australia who'd found my book, The Girl from Simon's Bay, in her local library. She confessed that she often picked a letter from the alphabet and then chose a book based on that for her week's read. And why not? Too often we stick with a genre or author we know rather than branching out. Well, that particular week, she happened to choose my book.

It turned out to be an amazingly appropriate - and moving - choice. She discovered that my novel described an era in Simon's Town, the naval port at the foot of Africa, that a close member of her family had experienced and often talked about. Suddenly, wartime family recollections came to life on the pages of my book: the restricted access to the town because of its strategic importance, a Great Dane called Just Nuisance who befriended the throngs of seamen and... incredibly... a young friend who went on to become one of the experts at the Simon's Town Museum and helped me in my research some sixty years later.

In a final poignant touch, my reader revealed that when her family member died, her ashes were brought from Australia to Simon's Town, and found a resting place in the memorial garden at St Francis church, in the heart of the town.

I pulled my nurse's cloak tightly about me.
Matron had called us together to say that Simon's Town was to be declared a closed port. Already, blackout shutters were being hammered into place at Admiralty House. And Ma had spoken of a well-attended prayer vigil at St Francis church last evening where the minister prayed for a short war...