Rose Miller

I was born in 1943 and lived in Levenshulme, Manchester until I was sixteen. I lived with my parents and grandparents in a large, terraced house with my older brother until I was sixteen years old, then moved South to Middlesex where I worked as a secretary in and around London for five years. It was during that time that I met my future husband. We decided to move back to Manchester and get married as it was cheaper to live up North at that time, and still is unfortunately. We lived there for fourteen years and had two children. In 1978 we moved to Malta and spent some time working there. After a year we came home and settled down in Greater Manchester again. After the children had grown up and were busy doing their own thing, I was offered a job in Tripoli, Libya where I worked as a secretary in an oil company, then moved to Benghazi for another year working for a construction company. I think that, by that time, I must have developed 'Mediterranean Fever' like a lot of people who'd worked abroad for years. So when I was offered a job in a hospital in Saudi Arabia I jumped at it in the hope of completing my education on North Africa and the Middle East. My last location was in Riyadh working for a military hospital. I can honestly say it was a very enlightening experience and I met many interesting people from all walks of life. It was then that I began to teach English to young Saudi children in their homes. I did this primarily to supplement my income due to the poor exchange rate at the time, but found it to be a really interesting and rewarding experience. They were fun to be with and enjoyed listening to my stories about England and beyond. I guess that my writing career began when I began writing writing a few short stories for them to read. Several years later I returned home for family reasons and, unfortunately, was unable to return. It was only after my retirement that I had the idea of writing a few children's stories. It would be quite a challenge for me because I had never attended any writing courses, but as it happened I found it quite natural to write about children due to a lifetime of experience with them. I completed my first book in November, 2017 and called it 'Alex and His Magic Dragon.' He's very cheeky, friendly and intelligent, but won't stand for any nonsense. I think he's already become part of my own family now because we're always talking about him and wondering what he's going to do next. I plan to write some more stories about him in the future in the hope that he'll appeal to many other children.