Judie Surridge

Judie has been many things in her time: heating engineer, telesales person, Tupperware agent/manager, hot lingerie demonstrator - that was fun! - choir mistress, probation worker, folk singer and for 20 years a sailing instructor (which included cooking romantic dinners on a luxury yacht). She now spends her time cruising the canals on a 60' narrowboat with husband John and ship's dog Calamity, but that's another story… Nothing at boarding school prepared her for such a life, but her experiences there gave her a strong self of survival and the belief that anything was possible. This, her first book, is a miscellany of memories of seven formative years at a traditional girls' boarding school and will surely strike a chord with those sent away to school 60 odd years ago! And maybe give an insight of what it was like growing up in the post-war years when so many subjects just weren't mentioned and 'female things' were learnt from ones' peers who were equally ignorant! Jo-Anne is an illustrator, living and working in the Bordeaux region of France. Amid the local vines, she refined her skills as a watercolour painter, exhibiting regularly throughout the region and winning several prizes for her pen and ink sketches. She has illustrated children's books, the most recent, Moffy, was published last year.