Patricia Fenton

Websitehttps://lit-links.nz

As an author and educator, I began my teaching career in New Zealand and later worked in international schools around the globe before being appointed to the International Baccalaureate Organisation (Cardiff, Wales) with responsibility for curriculum and professional development publications.

After returning to New Zealand, I wrote my first novel, Beyond the Rimu Grove, and followed up with War Bride inspired by the real-life experiences of my late mother-in-law, Prudence Ashfield Fenton. I’ve now completed the sequel, After the War, and hope to have it published later this year. (2024) I live in Whangārei and my involvement with the Northland writing community currently includes my role as secretary and newsletter coordinator for the Northland Branch of NZSA.

Genre:

  • Adult Fiction

Skills:

  • Academic Writing
  • Editing
  • Freelance Writing
  • Novelist
  • Readings

Branch:

Northland

Location:

Whangarei

Publications:

Beyond the Rimu Grove

In the summer of 1966, a young teacher is dispatched to Ngarimu Valley School as a Probationary Assistant. Vulnerable and inexperienced, how will she survive in the isolated farming community - and how will her year in The Valley impact the rest of her life? As this coming of age narrative evolves, the reader is immersed in a remote setting where nothing is quite the way it seems and lives are poignantly and inextricably interwoven.

War Bride

Grim, uplifting and funny, this fictionalised family saga weaves memories and historical records stemming from real-life stories of a Welsh girl and a Kiwi boy who would never have met, if it wasn’t for Hitler.

Evie, born and bred in the Valleys of South Wales, seems destined for a life in service, but the clouds of war draw her to Cirencester and work in a munitions factory. There she meets Frank, a boy from the Bay of Plenty, who is stationed with the 11th Forestry Company of the NZ Army. As war swirls around them, they find themselves in London, a young couple with everything to live for but with death their constant companion.

 

Publisher: Heritage Press  https://heritagepress.nz/
ISBN:  978-1-991163-05-9   RRP:  $39.99
Available from Heritage Press in print and ebook, and in bookshops throughout NZ