Wendy Robertson

Wendy Robertson.

Educator and Storyteller

Education has existed at the core of my world for all of my life – not just as a shy working-class girl in schools, not just in all that teaching in secondary and primary schools, not just in all that tutoring and teaching in Higher Education, not just all that esoteric study of psychology and sociology when, in my mid-thirties, I achieved my Master’s Degree in Education. Education stayed at my core even when I made the decision to reject the University’s encouragement to sign up for a doctorate and decided to focus on my first big adult novel after the series of published children’s novels gave me a calling card into the arcane world of London adult publishing.

I knew then and know even more so now that stories are the most ancient teaching tools in every culture.

In those years I found a publisher for the children’s books while I was still working. As well as this I wrote some short stories and some journalism. And later, as a full time writer, as well as the novels, I have written spasmodically about my own writing and lived life in my short volume A Life In Short Pieces, and in The Romancer: A Writer’s Tale and most recently in Kaleidoscope: Stories From The Frontier – an experimental blend of fiction and memoir.

This change in focus however set the pattern for the second half of my life when I became a full time writer, Now, my scholarship and experience as an educator, a mother and a citizen came together be invested in the series of historical and contemporary novels which defines me as a writer…

I continue to be deeply interested in the nature of creativity, history, identity, imagination, equality and myth. Recently, on looking through my novels, I have realised that – although not with any conscious purpose – these themes seem to be threaded through all my writing.

A number of my novels are bedded in my South Durham heritage but some are rooted in my experience of French, Spanish, Russian, and American history. If you look through the titles you will see that this is the case. For instance my novel My Dark Eyed Girl is set during the Spanish Civil War – a result of exploring my grandson’s Spanish heritage.

Each of us has especially significant points in our lives. Mine was in prison. For five years in the middle of my full-time writing career I spent two days a week as Writer in Residence in a women’s prison. This was a life-changing experience for me - broadening my view, deepening my empathy and my understanding of the whole of society.

One outcome of that experience was my novel Paulie’s Web. This, while fictional, tells some deep truths about the varied lives of many of the interesting and wise women I met in prison. This was an intense, fascinating and life-changing experience. As well as Paulie’s Web while I was in prison I published a significant collection of prisoners' writing called Why Am I Running? Here the women told the truth about themselves.

These days it is a particular pleasure for me to hear from readers in Britain and further afield about how they enjoy my novels – this is when I recognise true connection between me and them. People sometimes ask me which of my novels they should start on. I keep asserting to everyone that every novel is different to the others. (One very nice man simply got the chronological list from the library and worked his way through them …)

I would suggest a more random approach:

For instance you could start with

· Kitty Rainbow - early 20th century life in a South Durham town.

· Long Journey Home - small girl and her Chinese teacher are interned during the Japanese occupation of Singapore.

· Writing at the Maison Bleue - the lives of six very different writers are changed when they attend a writer’s workshop in the Languedoc in the south of France.

-Journey to Moscow. Olivia Ozanne travels to post glasnost Moscow in search of a new self, uncovering this iconic city in the process,

The Bad Child. In a story that ranges from contemporary London to the Lake District, to present-day Newcastle, Demelza is the naughty middle child in her family; her rebellion expresses itself in a refusal to speak. In the story both she and her family change.

The Pathfinder. The Celtic daughter of a Welsh chieftain finds paths which are later incorporated in the roads built by the invading Roman army,

Becoming Alice. The first novel in a trilogy which will span the years of 1940 – to 2002 - my own lifespan. I am now drafting the novel whose working title is Alice Two,

And so on…

All of my books are in your library,

out in paperback and on Kindle.

In recent years I’ve also enjoyed writing short-line pieces which those more expert than myself tell me are poems. I am now working on a collection of more or less autobiographical poems to be called With Such Caution.

This should be out in late 2020 or early 2021.

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The act of writing eternally preoccupies me, so here is a poem about writing.

Writing is the Sound of the Soul Breathing

Writing is the sound of the soul breathing -

it is measured, shapely, with its own rhythm.

Every breath out predicates each breath in.

Every word generates the next leap in meaning.

We breathe, using words, lines, paragraphs,

in pages, in chapters, in volumes -

our lives laid there in a million words -

all separated, well-formed, and

wondering about our world.

Writing is the notation of the quiet soul -

not blasted out by trumpets and clarinets -

it is dark smoke in the air, rising -

leaving the words lying there, just

waiting for your eye.

They are lying there in formation,

waiting for you to add your world

to my notation, creating a different world,

new to your soul and mine.

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A Few Views and Reviews.

‘Not only is Wendy Robertson a great storyteller, she fills her books with characters with real depth’ Northern Echo

‘Skilfully marries fact and fiction into an epic tale that has you turning the pages at high speed to match the pace of this compelling story.’ Sunderland Echo

‘A blend of accessibility and total sincerity’ Pat Barker

‘Wendy Robertson is a rare breed – a writer with an exquisite gift for creating vivid, relatable female characters’ Scottish Daily Record

‘A terrific read. A world on the cusp of change and we experience it intimately.’ Historical Novels Review

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NB. Through the years, as well as writing my novels, I’ve given regular master-classes and workshops across the North and adjudicated national writing competitions. Also before the Covid lockdown I mentored new writers

and spoke at writing workshops and conferences.

@ Wendy Robertson 2020

Contact: email wenrob73@hotmail.com

I write about her world on my blog Writing Life Twice Tasted http://lifetwicetasted.blogspot.co.uk/

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