Launch for woman who took a novel path to career as author
A PENSIONER will host a launch for her second book as she continues on her latest career.
Eileen Simkiss, from Edgeley, will unveil Weighing the Odds at Stockport Art Gallery, on Wellington Road South, on Sunday.
It is set in West Gorton and spans two decades from the grim post-war 1950s to the growing affluence of the 1970s.
Eileen, of Clwyd Avenue, released her first book in 2011 - The Houses on the Green and has previously held many other jobs.
They include salesperson, barmaid, secretary to an MP, bi-lingual secretary, translator, interpreter and teacher.
Weighing the Odds, which has a large element of social history, follows the lives of three very different individuals whose families are intertwined.
The trio include Johnnie Marshall, son of a back-street bookmaker, Sally Steadman - the youngest child of aspiring parents - and Alice Spencer, daughter of a controlling father, who is trying to find her independence while dealing with tragedy.
Mum-of-two Eileen, who keeps her age a closely guarded secret, said: “It is set in my childhood and the inspiration came from a flash of an idea where I had a flash of a scene from someone’s funeral.
“Someone was at the side of a grave looking down thinking, ‘I’m glad he is dead’. I had the idea for both of these characters then you have to add other people.
“To an extent it is social history, it is not just about the characters but the background they were living against. In the 1950s to 70s there was a lot going on and social changes.”
The book will be available from Amazon as well as at the launch, which is at 2pm.
Eileen hopes it will also find its way into Stockport libraries.
She said: “I have had a lot of jobs but I have liked writing since junior school. I would also write for my own pleasure and share my stories with friends.
“I did a writing course at Stockport College when I had done three quarters of my first novel.
“It had been under my bed for five years but the course fired me up again to finish it.”