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Angie Oakley
I’m in my sixties, and have lived all over the world, latterly in Australia, and have recently moved from Brisbane to the little beach town of Noosa Heads. To have reached this time of life in rela...view moreI’m in my sixties, and have lived all over the world, latterly in Australia, and have recently moved from Brisbane to the little beach town of Noosa Heads. To have reached this time of life in relatively good health is a gift and I’m using it to do the things I love: writing, reading, thinking, talking, eating, drinking and laughing, and more recently, singing and blogging: http://spryandretiring.wordpress.com Treading Water is my second novel, and my first foray into self-publishing. An English teacher for forty years, I have felt privileged to be involved in young people’s lives during their formative years. Look out for the lost ones, a wise headmaster once said, and that is the impetus for my book. The despair young people feel when their families are split must be handled with great love and care, and often is. But if children feel abandoned, it has consequences throughout their lives. I feel very strongly about it and wanted bring it to the reader through the eyes of the gentle and fragile Lucy. Other strands important to me intertwine with Lucy’s story: youth suicide, and the more sinister and sadly topical problem of child abuse, sometimes institutional. Also topical this year is war remembrance, something that has always moved me, never more so than when visiting Anzac Cove with students only a couple of years younger than the boys buried beneath. There is still much to be learned from these selfless men, something Lucy discovers for herself.view less