The tale of the woman who did not give up on her book dreams

A woman who has published her own children’s books has had a dream come true by making her first author’s visit to Waterstones.

Nicola Parkhouse, from Maidstone, is a teaching assistant at Greenfields Community Primary School. She had previously visited six schools to read her stories to youngsters.

But the 46-year-old had no idea what to expect as she made her debut visit as a writer in a national book store.

Not only that, but the Maidstone branch has stocked a selection of her work.

She said: “I approached Waterstones knowing as a self published author, it’s a very hard book shop to get my books into. But I had nothing to lose by trying.”

“I was unsure how it would pan out in a store, as I had only done schools before. But it went really well, I’m really pleased because it couldn’t have gone better.”

Nicola had her own story time session with a group of youngsters and led a crafts session with them afterwards.

She added: “Writing children’s books is something I always said I’d want to do. At the start I went down the traditional route of trying to find a publisher,but that was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Though I would encourage those who want to write to keep going for it and never give up whether that is financing your work independently or submitting it in the traditional way.

Nicola is also proud that she was able to get Waterstones to agree to sell the three books she has created in their stores.

She has dozens of ideas for new illustrated children’s rhyming books that are in the making, but the ones that are available to buy now are The Rat and the Cat, Well Fancy That! Ollie, Don’t You Go There! and Morris the Stealing Magpie. Fewer people are claiming reduced council tax in Maidstone this year, compared with 2017.

Between April and June last year, 9,412 people were receiving some form of council tax relief, according to Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government figures.

However over the same period in 2018, this number had dropped to 9,131 - a 3% decrease.

Across England there were 3% fewer claimants overall.

People can be eligible to pay reduced council tax if they are on a low income, claim benefits or a pensioner.

The amount can vary from a 5% discount, to only paying 5% of the total bill.

The government sets the rate at which pensioners pay council tax, however individual local authorities decide on working claimants.

In Maidstone the number of pensioners claiming council tax relief dropped by 266 last year, and the number of working age claimants also reduced by 15.