Book signing in Thornbury

THORNBURY SIGNING FOR TRAVEL BOOK

Authoress

Joan Alexander will be signing her 14th and most recent book "Follow Me" at Thornbury Book Shop, 2 High Street,

Thornbury on Saturday June 11th between 10.30am and 12.30pm. This

launch coincides, by a happy chance, with the Thornbury Food Fair.

Joan

has close family living in Almondsbury, with children, grand-children and great

grand-children living in Almondsbury, Alveston and Bristol so has strong local connections. Her

new book deals with her life as a diplomat's wife serving in Cyprus, Aden,

Nigeria and Kenya between the late 1940's and the late 1960's and extensively

features the heavy round of diplomatic entertaining that she had to carry out

in support of her husband Denis's job. Friends and guests such as Joyce Carey, Cyril

Connolly, Gerald Durrell, Lawrence Durrell, Prince Michael of Kent and the Duke

of Gloucester flit in and out of the pages and Joan gives a series of delicious

recipes for the necessary diplomatic entertaining that went with Denis's job.

The

EOKA troubles in Cyprus

feature as do the murders of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and General John Ironsi

in Nigeria

but Joan also lightens the book with amusing stories such as having to eat a

sheep's eye; to refuse would offend her distinguished host!

The

book is illustrated with many photographs and is available at £12.99. Joan is

95 and is working on her next book, "Two

Girls on a Boat" the tale of her voyage on the s.s. Orontes from Cairo to Glasgow during the height of the submarine

menace when the ships in front of and behind the Orontes were sunk. For further details contact Jos Gregson on 01454-411652