#GuestPost from Author, Carol Hedges @carolJhedges #TuesdayBookBlog

Over the years I’ve connected with a host of incredible authors from across the globe, some of them I’ve even met in real-life (that weird space beyond the laptop!). The writing community on a whole is hugely supportive but there are some writers’ that go above and beyond. Today I’m delighted to share a guest post from one such writer, Carol Hedges.

After many months of hounding asking Carol to join me on my blog I’m thrilled that she agreed. Over to Carol…

 

What is your earliest memory?

It is a sunny morning, and I am walking home from nursery school to have lunch. I must be three or four. I can see the grass on the verge, and the houses I pass. Amazingly, I was allowed to cross the road (albeit a quiet local street). The memory is bright and clear. It would therefore be 1953/4. You’d NEVER allow a child of that age to walk home alone now! Times were so different back then. The world was a smaller and safer place.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Intolerance ~ I get so angry when I see people making assumptions based on race/colour/gender/religion. I try not to, but something inside me boils. It is not good for my health to get so angry, but somehow, I can’t help myself.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Ha! Same: Intolerance. I loathe it when people condemn someone for their race/colour/gender/religion

What makes you unhappy?

Lots of things: if either of my grandchildren is unhappy ~ I feel sad. The awful state of this country, where Brexit has caused hatred and division, and will cause much more before it runs its evil course. I went on the Peoples Vote March in October ~ it was lovely to be with 700,000 people of all ages (and some dogs) who got on! Oh, and I get unhappy if the writing reaches a*sticky spot*.

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

I went through the usual: ballerina (far too fat and clumsy), poet (noooooo), actually, it was more what I didn’t want to be, ever, which was: a teacher. Guess what? ……..

To whom would you like to say sorry, and why?

Various people from the past. I suffered badly from depression for a lot of my teenage years and young adult life. Many times, I’d walk away from a person, or cut myself off from them, when the black days arrived and I couldn’t bear to see anybody. By the time I’d surfaced, it was too late. The contact had been lost. Depression is more than just a mind thing: it can alienate people from the sufferer. I think it takes someone with immense strength and inner resources to hang in with a depressive. I am better now, but there are a few people I wish I could explain why I was how I was. Sadly, they are no longer alive.

Who is the greatest love of your life?

My granddaughter (‘Little G’). She has just started school, so I don’t get to look after her as much as I used to. I am so proud of her ~ she has made friends, has won the ‘Special Star’ for her attitude, and seems to be known by all the bigger girls …who come up and cuddle her. The most important thing about her is that she is kind and sharing. OK, she’s bright, but so are a lot of nasty people! Kindness and empathy will take her wherever she wants to go in her life. I am also aware that I may not be around to see it….so every get-together and time spent with her is precious.

Which person do you most despise and why?

Donald Trump …do I have to enlarge? No, thought not.

What is the worst job you’ve ever done?

As a student, I worked in Jones Brothers, Holloway Road, in the hardware department. There was a lot of carrying heavy pans and pots up from the basement for customers who then said they’d changed their mind. And I had to be so polite, even though I was inwardly fuming! I make sure I am always courteous to sales staff now …been there, got the bruises!

If you could go back in time, where would you go?

Victorian England, of course.  I know people who read my books are very generous in their praise for the descriptions of London on the 1860s, but I am sure I don’t capture the real essence of it. It’d be amazing to stand on a street corner (hopefully NOT being taken for a prostitute) and actually breathe the air and hear the sounds. No words written a hundred odd years on can possibly describe what it must like back then.

What is the closest you’ve come to death?

Apart from that moment when I went into theatre for the 2 cancer ops?  Probably getting hit by an electric car recently on my way back from London. I think I shall hear the BANG as it struck me for the rest of my life. Luckily, I managed to get away with severe bruising and a big bump on my head. It could have been so much worse.

What was the best piece of advice you received while growing up

My mother used to tell me: ‘never forget you are a Jew, and your parents were immigrants. Because if you do forget, other people will always remind you.’ Throughout my life, they have done so. More now I have obtained *restored* German citizenship and am a vigorous anti-Brexit campaigner on social media. I have never really felt assimilated into British society, and, much as I love you all, I don’t think I ever will. I’m just not wired like a Brit. It used to bother me a lot. It doesn’t any more.

Bio stuff

Twitter: @carolJhedges

Blog:  http://carolhedges.blogspot.co.uk 

Amazon Author Page

New book stuff:

Fear & Phantoms : universal link: getbook.at/Phantoms

When a young man’s body is discovered buried deep beneath the winter snow, Detectives Stride and Cully little realise where the discovery will take them. Is his murder a random, one-off event, or could the death be linked to the mysteriously elusive individual who has already brought down one of the City’s long-standing private banks?

Mishap, misunderstanding and mystery dog their footsteps as the Scotland Yard detectives find themselves in very murky territory indeed, at times struggling to keep their heads above water in the umbrous underworld of murder and financial fraud. Can they unmask the dark brutal mastermind lurking at the centre of it all, before he strikes again?

A taut, gripping historical crime novel that lays bare the dubious practices of the Victorian banking businesses and entices the reader into the shady world of high-class gambling houses, where fortunes can be made or lost on the luck of the cards.
In the great tradition of Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle, this sharp witty series of detective novels brings back to life the murky gas-lit world of Victorian London.