Dear Teddy

Gillian and Teddy are love struck teenagers living in a small village in England in the late 1950s. When Gillian's father suddenly decides to move his family to Canada, they are devastated. They promise to stay in touch but a series of mishaps intervene and Gillian's first letter from Canada is not delivered to Teddy for almost 50 years.Gillian waits for a reply from Teddy and Teddy waits for Gillian to provide him with an address to write to. Months-then years-pass and eventually they are forced to move on with their separate lives. Gillian marries, has two children, divorces and eventually becomes a children's author. Teddy expands the family ironmonger's business into a chain of DIY stores throughout northern England, struggles with alcoholism and fumbles through a few unsatisfactory relationships.Despite never receiving a reply from Teddy, Gillian continues to write to him. She keeps the precious letters-over 2000-in a trunk, telling herself she will send them as soon as she hears from him.Meantime, the very first letter she wrote remains undiscovered in the house her family lived in when they arrived in Canada. Other families and individuals occupy the charming old house and go about their lives unaware that a flimsy blue envelope hidden somewhere in the attic could change two lives forever.The parade of occupants living in the house in the ensuing years all have their own stories to share as well. There is a retired journalist who writes a love story based on his own unfulfilled romantic pursuit.After his demise, a family of five moves in but, after ten years and a slowly failing business, they are forced to return to the city.They are followed by an older couple who, following a dreadful family tragedy, believe a new start will solve their problems. But, of course, life doesn't let them off the hook that easily and they eventually lose the home and are forced to move on. Georgina, a lonely spinster, is the next occupant and she is the person who finally discovers the letter. Excited about the prospect of being involved in some marvellous romance, she decides to pose as Gillian and begins a brief correspondence with Teddy. Eventually all lies and truths, regrets and misunderstandings are exposed when Teddy announces he's coming to Canada.
About the Author: I was born in England in the mid-1950s and, with my parents and two sisters, moved to Canada in 1968. We settled in an isolated community a couple of hours north of Ottawa where I completed high school before attending the University of Toronto. I graduated with a degree in Landscape Architecture but soon found my real passion lay in the graphic arts and publishing. In the early '80s I was Art Director for Hamilton Cue Magazine-this was back in the day when 'paste' literally meant getting messy with dollops of contact cement or hot wax, and when 'cut' often required the precision of a scalpel-wielding surgeon. The digital age has since made those antiquated production processes completely redundant. I took a break from working in print media when my husband, two small children and I left the city and moved to a remote pulp and paper town in Northern Ontario. The winters were long and nasty and the summers were short and buggy; there was plenty of time to pursue new interests. Having always enjoyed working with fabrics, I began making wall hangings for my children's rooms. When their walls were amply covered, I fine-tuned my techniques, tested the marketplace and developed the art form that I have remained committed to ever since. We moved to Nelson, British Columbia, in 1994. Two years later, I opened an art and furnishing gallery downtown. It was during those years that my decorating consulting business began which, eventually, led to my writing and publishing my first book, Nest Building: A Guide To Finding Your Inner Interior Designer. I closed Redfern House & Gallery in 2006. Since then-while exploring a variety of other vocations, including retail, ad sales and real estate, as well as travelling and successfully launching my two sons into the world-I have continued to work with my Fabric Art and, in 2013, I published The Fabric Of Nelson, a collection of over 80 pieces of my work depicting life in and around Nelson. I have always enjoyed writing and the computer/Internet age provided me with the opportunity to test the waters by blogging on a variety of topics ... from home décor and job hunting to art and social media. But, there's always been a novel percolating inside me-two, in fact-and eventually I had to write them. I published Talking To Myself in 2014 and now I'm ready to launch my second novel, Dear Teddy. Both tales are about love and relationships and they both draw heavily on life experiences ... mine or those of people I've been around.