Cheshire author flying high with history books

Sep 8 2011 by Carmella de Lucia, Flintshire Chronicle

ONCE UPON a time, Sue Wilkes would read books and magazines and dream of one day writing in them herself.

A keen history buff who loves writing, never did Sue imagine that she would one day be a published author, commissioned to write non-fiction books on her favourite subject – but that’s exactly what she’s doing now, and she couldn’t be happier.

And as her third history book, The Children History Forgot is published, the 53-year-old who lives in Cuddington, says she is living her dream.

“I was always interested in history, I love research and finding out about how people used to live all those years ago,” adds Sue, whose previous books have been based on time periods including the Lancashire Industrial Revolution.

Her literary career began when her now adult children were small and she began writing articles that she submitted to history magazines, before securing her first publishing deal with the book, Narrow Windows, Narrow Lives – a moment she recalls with amusement.

“The phone call telling me I had got my first book deal is forever ingrained into my living room carpet because I dropped the iron in shock!” she laughs.

“It is such an amazing feeling when your book is delivered through the door and you are holding it in your hands. It makes a lot of hard work extremely worthwhile.”

Sue’s latest book tells the story of the long fight for young people’s reform during the late Georgian and Victorian eras and takes a fascinating insight into the working lives of our ancestors.

“I just find it all fascinating and there is so much history all around us that I constantly have ideas -–it’s just getting all of them published that’s a bit trickier!”

Born in Salford, Sue has lived in Cheshire for 30 years and has been writing full time since 1999. And now her children, aged 18 and 23 have both left home, she enjoys nothing more than spending her days with her husband Nigel and writing to her heart’s content.

“Nigel has been so supportive of me, I couldn’t have written any of my books without him. It is very hard work writing a book and with research can take around 15 months on average. But it is so worth it.”

Next on Sue’s agenda will be the release of yet another book, albeit ‘a shorter one’, she concedes, called Tracing Your Local Ancestors which will be out in October.

“I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to be an author,” says Sue. “I really am living my dream.”

The Children History Forgot, published by Robert Hale Ltd, is available on Amazon. For more information, email publicity@halebooks.com.