Who Was Angela Zendalic (39 page)

M
ary
Cavanagh spent her childhood in the leafy climes of North Oxford, and amusing memories abound of eccentric academic neighbours, most of whom were struggling to make end meet on 1950's austerity.

Being a pupil at St Barnabas Junior School in Jericho was both a privilege and a delight: an experience she feels honoured to have shared with such friendly and unpretentious classmates.

Milham Ford Girl's Grammar was another story. Being lazy and academically challenged she was grateful to show a clean pair of heels. A hedonistic working life followed as an office clerk, trainee graphic artist, barmaid, au pair, lab assistant and other forgotten nightmares, none of which she took at all seriously. She married Bill (they're still married after forty-five years!) and had two sons. With her children starting school, she finally got her act together and trained to teach at Westminster College, Oxford – now part of Oxford Brookes University – but she soon discovered she was not a natural teacher. Thus, her working life was spent, very happily, in medical administration.

When asked ‘why did you start to write' her oft-told tale is that she was inspired after the tail-gate of her Volvo came down and hit her hard on the head! She still has a dent in her skull to prove it. Having heard a story of a man who was struck by lightning, and suddenly found he could play the piano, there might some truth in it!

She describes her writing as strong commercial fiction, born out of her observations and experiences, her fascination with the strange and secret life that is lived within the mind, and mankind's battle with close relationships.

Her work has been compared to Susan Hill, Henry Fielding, Virginia Woolf, Joanna Trollope, Anita Shreve and Pat Barker (what a diverse mix!).

She is a member of the Oxford Writers Group (OWG), Writers in Oxford and Abingdon Writers.

Also By Mary Cavanagh

Novels

The Crowded Bed
(Transita 2007)

The Priest, His Lady and The Drowned Child
(Thames River Press 2013)

Text Book

A Seriously Useful Authors Guide to Marketing and Publicising Books
(Troubador 2008)

Anthologies with the Oxford Writers Group (OWG)

The Sixpenny Debt and Other Oxford Stories

The Lost College and Other Oxford Stories

The Bodleian Murders and Other Oxford Stories

Get in touch with Mary on her website
marycavanagh.co.uk