A Writer's Life

 This is the story of a marriage.  My mother, Ella, was 18 when she met David Brown in 1938. She was a shop assistant in the dress department of Fenwick’s department store in Newcastle; he was a travelling rep. for the firm. David was five years older than her, a serious young man, the only son of the widowed mother he supported. Neither Ella nor David had had the opportunity to get higher education, but both read widely and it was books that brought them together. It was how my mother made relationships. She was shy, with very little small talk and without much self-confidence, having been bullied by her own mother. At first, she thought, it was just friendship. They went to a church youth group together, occasionally to the cinema and once a month to a classical concert. But David was deeply in love with the lovely Ella Sutherland, with her dark Italian hair and her quiet personality. He courted her with books and poetry. They both loved Wordsworth and a small collection of ...