A Bit About Myself

Diana Daneri

I suppose I should tell you a little bit about myself, and how I eventually came to the decision to start writing.

I married in 1974 in my village church in Laleham. I have two sons, my eldest, David is still living at home. David was born in 1983 and James in 1987.

Because of my sons, I enjoy using a computer for both research and playing the odd game or two.

Then three years ago I bought myself a laptop and it was then the idea of writing surfaced again.

I spent a year writing the first book, then with encouragement from a friend in the States, I decided to try and get it published. Well after quite a few rejections, I eventually found a publisher who agreed to publish it. Then things went wrong for me. The publisher Kinglake Publishing Limited ceased trading.

I would have left him anyway because he published my second book with so many errors, which I had asked to be corrected, without my knowledge. When I read through the book he had also taken out some important parts of the story line. He was actually more interested in making money than helping me promote my books.

I found another Publisher.

Now I self publish via Lulu.com and my eldest son David designs my covers for me.

I can still remember how I felt the day I received the copies of my first published book - it was marvellous, at last I had achieved something I thought.

I think my early life has had a lot to do with what I think is rather a solitary hobby - writing.

My parents moved up from Sussex in the August of 1951 to a little village in Middlesex. My mother was expecting me the following March and this had been the reason for them moving.

Previously they had been living on a boat, which was moored in my Great Uncles’ boat yard. The boat had been converted into three apartments after WWII. My parents lived in the middle one, with one of my father’s Uncle’s and his wife on one side of them and an Aunt of his and her husband on the other side. They all got along really well, considering they were technically a different generation to my parents but they were only a few years older than them.

The drawback though to living there, was access. The boatyard was in the Bosham estuary, so at high tide the only way on and off the boat was via a rowing boat and a steep ladder, something my mother would not be able to cope with later on in the pregnancy. So my father looked for employment with a house. He was successful and they moved.

They knew no one in their new village community. My mother must have been very lonely especially after I was born. They rarely ever visited any of their family they had left behind, as money was often scarce for the first few years, rationing still existed.

My father was the general handyman on the farm where he was employed. When I was old enough I spent many an afternoon cycling along the farm tracks to take him some drink or food.

He was a carpenter by trade and before the war had worked with his father, who had his own house building business. My father could turn his hand to anything and I loved watching him work.

It wasn’t until I was a lot older that I realised that the farm in our village where my father had worked, was one of the last farms to use horses for ploughing the fields. I think the breed was Suffolk Punch, but whatever they were they were beautiful golden brown horses, and I loved them.

I don’t remember mixing with any other children until I started school so I found it somewhat daunting to begin with. It wasn’t until I started school though, that I realised my family was somewhat different to those of my peers.

I tended to find it difficult to mix and therefore to make friends, consequently I was thought to be unfriendly. The older I became this became worse and I was thought of as very standoffish - but I was just incredibly shy.

For as long as I can remember I have always had an active imagination, I would sit for hours when I was young quietly playing and as I grew older I would make up stories in my head.

I never wrote anything down, I actually didn’t enjoy writing and my spelling left a lot to be desired but I would make up short stores, about whatever popped into my head at the time, I knew no one would be interested in reading or knowing about them anyway. To me it was my own private world, somewhere I could escape to. Summer holidays seemed to be days with constant sunshine so I spent most of my time outside in our large garden.

My parents seemed to prefer their own company, they referred to us as ‘The Three D’s’ because our names had the same initials. They did have friends but in hindsight I think they expected too much from these friendships so consequently the friendships would eventually break up. If ever I had a friend come to my home, they always wanted to be part of whatever we were doing, to the extent of becoming friends with the parents. Needless to say this caused problems, a son or daughter wants their own friends, their own life without their parents interfering.

We hardly ever saw the relations on my mother’s side of the family and I only met my cousins periodically over the years. Our parents were always falling out with one another.

Visits back to Sussex were few and far between and I soon learnt from little things I pieced together, from the conversations I overheard, that my parents had left Sussex without telling anyone that they were going. To me this seemed very strange - it had also obviously upset those left behind. My father had two sisters, whom I hardly ever met.

My mother hated talking about their life before they moved, it was almost a forbidden subject. It was as if their life together had started in 1951 and not 1947 when they had married.

So after my father died in 2004, I spent the next few years tracing my family - trying to find out about myself, where I had really come from, what my ancestors had done and where they had lived. My mother died in 2009, so neither of my parents lived to see me as a published author.

I wonder to myself sometimes, if my parents would have been proud of me now? Would they have been pleased? I would hope so.

If you are interested in reading what happened you can read about it ‘here’ in my blog.