| JOANNA STEPHEN-WARD AUTHOR I was born in the Australian outback but grew up in Melbourne. The daughter of a nurse and an army officer, my earliest ambitions were to be a writer or actress. My exclusive education at St Michaels Grammar School was wasted because I spent my days dreaming. Most of the final year at school was spent furtively writing a novel in the back of the classroom. Set on the German occupied Island of Jersey during World War II it was the first attempt at writing fiction. When I was seventeen I began having singing lessons from Gertrude Johnson, the charismatic founder of the National Theatre. After three years at The National Theatre Opera School, I knew my voice was not good enough to become a professional opera singer. Nevertheless Gertrude Johnson had left a profound impression on me. The seeds of my first novel Vissi d’arte took root. Disappointed about not being able to follow a singing career, I went to Europe and spent a year travelling. Five years later I returned to Australia, but was unable to settle. Feeling my destiny lay in England, I returned in 1983. I began working for The National Health Service, while attending part time drama school at Questors Theatre in Ealing. In 1985 I married, Peter, an architect, in the ancient church of St Peter’s in Petersham. We joined the Richmond Writers’ Circle in 1997 and I became the chairman eighteen months later. Along with four others in the circle I founded The Writers’ Room, a performance group, which gives poets, writers and singers an opportunity to showcase their work. I have since writen five more novels all self published. One of which has now been accepted by a publisher to be professionally published in November 2018. We moved from Richmond to Liskeard in east Cornwall in 2009 from where I now write full time and volunteer for The National Trust at the beautiful Lanhydrock House and gardens near Bodmin Cornwall.I always knew I was adopted and that my adopted mother was really my aunt, and that my biological father was her brother. I didn’t know who my biological mother was. Having been brought up as a lonely only child it came as a shock to discover in 2010 that I was one of eight children. My sister found me on Face Book and we were reunited two years later when she and her husband visited England. We are writing a book about our lives and the amazing discovery of a new family. |