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Vivien Heim
Born in London on her mother's birthday, Vivien was the only child of Oscar and Susan Heim. Oscar was in the Army; the family spent a very happy few years in Malta, eventually returning to London b...view moreBorn in London on her mother's birthday, Vivien was the only child of Oscar and Susan Heim. Oscar was in the Army; the family spent a very happy few years in Malta, eventually returning to London before deciding to settle in Birmingham.Married at 24 and after what she calls 'an awful lot of faffing about', Vivien decided to pursue a career in education which proved to be a turning point in her life as it became clear this was the working love of her life. The untimely death of her mother came as a huge shock, a sorrow that came back to haunt her when she too contracted breast cancer many years later. After giving birth to her only daughter, Vivien suffered several tumultuous years; following the all to early death of a dear friend and her father within days of each other, the ending of her marriage, redundancy from the teaching job she highly valued, and battling breast cancer - life was hard. In order to support herself and her daughter, Vivien seized every opportunity that materialised - from taking in lodgers to share their home, to teaching, assessing vocational qualifications, teaching English as a foreign language, training, management consultancy, and life coaching. She has even been an official wedding registrar! It was mainly through the support network of her friends that she survived all this with head held high; a group of women (and the occasional man) who hold strong and true to each other to this day.As she felt she needed to concentrate on her daughter until she had left school, Vivien was in her 50s, having shied away from it entirely for over a decade, before she ventured into the world of online dating. These dalliances left her fearful, exposed and self-conscious, yet excited, comforted, and courageous. It was those experiences that inspired this, her first novel - Enough Really Is Enough.view less