Author Jacqueline Winspear 04-06-13

Yorba Linda, which adjoins Placentia to the northeast, participates in the One Book, One City program and the current book is "Maisie Dobbs" by Jacqueline Winspear.  I have read all nine of the series and now own the latest, published last week, " Leaving Everything Most Loved".  Today Jacqueline did a "Meet the Author" program at the Yorba Linda Library and had a full house.  Liz and I went early because I have heard that these events are popular.  Since we were early we had front row seats which is a good place to sit and not have distractions from other members of the audience. 


The current book was for sale, thanks to Barnes and Noble, although it is only hardback.  Soft cover will take a few months.
 

The librarian had a list of questions and Jacqueline was very good at answering them, and those submitted by audience members.

She didn't talk much about her private life, but was very articulate about the way she does research and about what she has learned about the era the books are set it - immediately after the" Great War" - 1918 and continuing. We think of it as WWI, but the British have an entirely different take on that event and the resulting massive changes in their society. The "Great War" is still a part of the curriculum in their schools, whereas I doubt that there is more than a sentence or two in schools here in the USA.
 

I especially enjoyed her story about the first time she decided she would be a writer, when she was about six years old and already an avid reader.  With her mother she regularly rode a double decked bus along the same route.  Sitting so high she could look down into the houses along the way.  One in particular was near a bus stop and the room she could see was lined with books and had a black manual typewriter on a table, along with paper and books and sometimes a cup and saucer.  She asked her mother who lived in that house and her mother suggested it might be a writer.  Jacquelyn decided she wanted a room like that so she would have to become a writer.  She didn't start writing until later in her life after a career in education.  And then it was because she was recuperating from an injury and couldn't be active.  She is a good story teller and a good story writer.  Her character Maisie Dobbs is someone I have gotten to know and like, almost like a friend I can visit only every year or so.   Some of you may have also met her in your reading journey.