David Hicks is Professor of Education at Bath Spa University. Cathie Holden is Reader in Education at the University of Exeter.
Mary Ward Brown is one of our nation's great secrets, and with each book she's gotten better. This one, so much more personal, lets her fans see both how she came to be the writer she is and where so many of her stories came from. It's a cause for celebration to hear from her again, with the echoes of her previous works still ringing with beauty, a soprano singing into a valley, a songbird into the hills. Join me in rejoicing, for she is a rare and distilled talent. - Tom Franklin, author of Poachers and Hell at the Breech Anyone lucky enough to have met Mary Ward Brown will want to read this account of her remarkable life. Those who haven't met her will get the chance here. She recognizes how unlikely it seems that her accomplishments should include becoming a celebrated writer, but no one else could have written the stories she has. - John Shelton Reed, author of Minding the South