Barbara Fox

Barbara Fox was born in Newcastle and spent her childhood there and in the mining town of Ashington, Northumberland. She was inspired to write her first book, 'Bedpans & Bobby Socks', after reading the letters her mother, Gwenda Gofton, wrote home while working as a young nurse in 1950s America. A short podcast, 'Off the Page: Wandering Girls', features Gwenda and her companion Pat talking about those days and is available on iTunes.

'When the War Is Over' turns back the clock to Gwenda's childhood during the Second World War and her evacuation to a Lake District schoolhouse, while she also features in Barbara's own childhood memoir, 'Is the Vicar In, Pet?'

Barbara edited 'Eve's War', the wartime diaries of officer's wife Evelyn Shillington, and co-wrote 'Midwife of Borneo' with Wendy Grey Rogerson, the extraordinary tale of Wendy's time running a clinic in the island's remote interior.

After working with shepherdess Emma Gray on 'One Girl and Her Dogs' - an account of Emma's first year running a farm in an isolated part of Northumberland - she also worked on her recent book, 'My Farming Life'.