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by Mary Collingwood Hurst

My author’s name is Mary Collingwood Hurst, and I’ve had seven books published so far. I do not have a genre as I am a fairly eclectic writer putting down on paper whatever comes into my head!

I have been passionate about writing all my life and started making up stories in my head when paralysed from the neck down with polio at the age of four, not allowed toys or books because of infection control. I was very lonely and frightened in an isolation unit for months. My imagination was my only friend.

When I left hospital, I was unable to walk for a year and dragged a leg for a further year, so wrote all my stories down. Some local journalists learned of this and very kindly published my first story in the local newspapers when I was five.

I’ve had various items published over the years – Ladybird published some of my stories in the 1970s/80s, and magazines and newspapers published articles, and some stories were broadcast on BBC Bristol. My dissertation on the ‘Care of the Terminal Cancer Patient and their Families’ won a national award with the Institute of Welfare Officers and was used to start up a hospice in Europe.

My first book for adults was Green Smarties Tales of a Navy Wife which covers my story of twenty years married to a Royal Navy pilot who I met on a ship visiting Bournemouth in 1969. It covers living in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, and contact with Special Branch, as well as learning how to avoid the KGB and living next door to the Triads and other unusual events, ending up being bugged by MI5 so is a non-fiction mixture of both social and Naval history.

The second book is a novel The Stealth Virus Conspiracy based on my own experience with a teenager with leukaemia and the research I took up as a result. This is a true story but disguised as a novel to protect some of the people involved. It eventually changed the way a certain vaccine was made – although as an ex-nurse, I am not anti-vaccination at all and kept my research at the time only for the professional scientists. This was to avoid a general panic.

The Nellie and Sybil Sagas are a collection of light relief humour short stories about two elderly ladies living in Bournemouth (in the current book I am writing they are joined by a third character ‘Worst Cate Scenario’) These are all based on true events – although some may seem unlikely!

There then follow three books – fantasies about an ancient sailor’s ship in a bottle I found in a second-hand shop. The Island in a Bottle, The Schooner in a Bottle and The Lighthouse in a Bottle. Aimed at helping anyone and particularly today’s younger folk who are going through various traumas with mental health issues. Although written with the current young generation in mind, there is no age limit.

The seventh book is a collection of original Christmas Stories by the Fairy Godmother.

I have a website and would always love to hear from you at any time. I am so glad to have met Alex and become part of her wonderful visions for authors and Author Events.