I was educated at Lady Margaret High School, Cardiff. But from the age of eleven until my marriage I acted as a full-time carer for my late mother who had anorexia as a direct result of the Holocaust. (At the age of twelve she came out of Germany under the auspices of the Kindertransport, with a luggage label attached to her clothing, and just before her sixteenth birthday she heard that her father who was then the Chief Rabbi of Hamburg, her mother and her three little sisters had been shot in Riga. She never recovered) She fed me as she starved. My weight ballooned to fourteen and a half stone as she became a desperate four and a half stone. I ate to keep her happy.

The day of her death my father accused me of murdering her and I lost a child the day of her funeral. Remembering Judith describes these times and more. (A digital story made with BBC Wales shows further details and new pictures of my mother.) I was honoured when Remembering Judith was cited as core reading for every library in Wales alongside Dylan Thomas and my own writing heroine Jan Morris.

It is not surprising that for a while I suffered from depression, but by then I had a husband and two small children and I knew I had to do something to relieve the pain. I entered cookery competitions and won the Cook of the Realm for Wales, and began my life catering for the local store churning out thirty five dozen fancies, ten gateaux and a change of dessert trolley every day from my little kitchen in an ordinary semi with no help. (A digital story with BBC Wales describes those times) But that work was not sufficient for my needs and I opened my own catering company single-handedly supplying parties, cakes, christenings and even catered a funeral.

And because of my knowledge of food Windward books asked me to write The Complete Dieter, slimming but not sacrificing flavour or nutrition. After writing cookery features for The South Wales Spectator I became its editor and when that folded I edited Holiday Haunts for a year and then began to submit features to IPC magazines writing for Woman, Woman’s Own, Home and Freezer Digest, Slimming Naturally etc.

After that I ran an antique shop, made jewellery, opened a lingerie shop, sewing some of the silk lingerie myself, made silk shirts, sewed dog beds and painted showed and exhibited watercolours – anything to chase the nightmares away. And, at the age of forty I studied nutrition under the guidance of Patrick Holford and the Institute of Optimum Nutrition to help people where I was unable to cure my mother.

But after ten years of practice, an accident caused me to rethink my life. A BBC Wales, programme ‘And Now Read On’ asked listeners for novels that were hidden away in drawers. I submitted my novel and they were very complimentary. I applied to Glamorgan University, was accepted and three years later qualified with a Master of Philosophy in Writing. In order to support the Breast Cancer charity, I submitted a story for a book called Sexy Shorts for Summer and on the strength of that story, the publisher, Hazel Cushion approached me to publish my collection. So Red Stilettos was published by Accent Press which like life, is a amalgamation of themes, love, hatred, jealously, a grandmother’s pride, a young boys first dalliance with an older woman, and the title story deals with revenge although fortunately I am not a vengeful person.

I have written for the Guardian, Red magazine, and the Daily Express, have contributed many stories to anthologies – some of them prize-winners. I am writing a novel but progress is slow as I contribute regularly to The Jewish Chronicle on food-matters (please go to JC.com follow the Leisure link and then Food to read my contributions) and used to write for WM magazine edited by Sarah Drew Jones – a dear lady. Times have changed, however, we have all moved on and now I’m thrilled to join the Buzz Magazine team, writing about the important issues that concern me, such as, using our precious food sensibly, buying local and organic where possible, considering the welfare of animals, eco matters, saving waste and trying to save the planet in our own individual but valuable ways plus my own recipes.

And still the challenges present themselves. A script I wrote years ago in conjunction with Fizzy Ope, called ‘Deeds not Words’, is now an MA student’s film project and I have started giving master-classes to the film school on ‘Working with an Author’.

Certainly with my years of experience in the writing world, I’ll discuss the value and importance of having an agent who looks after your writing needs. I am lucky that I have a wonderful agent Darryl Samaraweera, of Artellus Ltd, in London, who is constantly supportive, does a phenomenal job editing my work and is always kind and super charming. Please look out for his debut novel – Vicky Had One Eye Open published by Beautiful Books and available at all good bookshops and Amazon, of course.  

I have found super friends through writing. I belong to a writers group – ‘The Water Babies’ and both Barrie Llewellyn and Shelagh Middlehurst are my special friends as well as my daughter Sarah who shares my writing passions. Catherine Merriman was my tutor and my editor but is now a good friend and I relish our good chats and special lunches. Janet Thomas has been so supportive as well as Phil Trenfield and they plus others provide the laughs and fun in my life.

I love my hubbie more every day. We take pleasure walking in our local park and especially enjoy our moments by the sea at Porthcawl or farther around the coast at Criccieth and Looe in Cornwall. I have turned into a bit of a twitcher and one of my most memorative moments was going to the Red Kyte feeding station in mid Wales this year. I adore my friends, enjoy entertaining, love my music particularly opera and classical, and have promised myself to return to my water-colour painting passion one day. In the meantime I have lost that force-fed weight, am slim and happy.