An imaginative grandmother from Dunham on the Hill is putting her retirement to good use penning children’s books.
Patricia Wilton-King, 67, stopped working seven years ago, having spent the majority of her career in sales.
She said she ‘never wrote a thing’ before she retired but is ‘so glad’ she has taken it up.
Patricia explained that the catalyst for her finally putting pen to paper was the death of her mother.
She then wrote her first book of personal poems, which was called I Remember.
Continuing to dabble in poetry, she had two poems published in anthologies by United Press Ltd and eventually made the leap to writing for children.
“Something I had wanted to do for a while but did not have the confidence to do, was to write short stories for children, but encouraged by my sister I gave it a go and had my first children’s short story called Mama and Papa Christmas published in an anthology by the Short Story Society,” she said.
Charming tales Odd One Out and Frosty the Rabbit soon followed.
Now Patricia’s latest instalment, Tiger Turns the Tables, is available to buy online and at major book stores.
Patricia, whose biggest sources of inspiration are her grandchildren, recollections from her youth and reading other books, said she’s never bored as she has ‘far too much to do’.
She added: “I love to create a new character, to give them a mix of flaws and weaknesses as well as courage and strengths.
“They should be all of these things whether it is an animal or a person.
“And I love to think up a good plot but nothing too complicated for the reader.”
When she’s not dreaming up another story, she’s investigating her family tree with her husband or spending time with family and friends.
For more information about Patricia’s work, click here.
