Alison Child

Alison trained to be a teacher at Cambridge University and she has taught in schools all over the south-east of England. She has three grown-up children.

In 2016 Alison went back to University to learn how to be a researcher. She discovered Gwen Farrar and Norah Blaney on a grainy piece of silent film that someone had posted on Youtube. She became so interested in them that she travelled around the UK and to Paris, New York and Johannesburg. On these trips she went to places where they had lived, she visited theatres where they had performed and she met people who remembered them.

In 2019 Alison’s book, "Tell Me I’m Forgiven: The Story of Forgotten Stars Gwen Farrar and Norah Blaney" was published by Tollington Press. Alison was excited when Shanni Collins agreed to work with her by drawing pictures for this children’s book about the musical pair. "Gwen & Norah, Still & Moss" is published by Behind The Lines in 2024.

Alison now spends part of the year on a Greek island with her wife and two rescue dogs.