A Woman of Fortitude - Rosemary Laird
Rosemary Phillips teacher, Rosemary Calvert professional photographer and now Rosemary Laird author. Rosemary has had a varied life, travelled the world and feels lucky to be enjoying life with her second husband. Her life illustrates well the saying “Variety is the spice of life”. She was one of five in a family of girls, a sensitive, yet exuberant child, full of life and ideas. Her father called her “Sunshine and showers”. As a child she learnt long poems while attending elocution classes which she recited to anyone willing to listen. At school she wasn’t a star pupil, but she did win a national essay competition with an essay about things left behind by the tide on the beach and was awarded a prize by the Duke of Edinburgh, much to everyone’s surprise. Rosemary uses life as her inspiration for writing. She started by writing letters to magazines. Seeing them published gave her a thrill and the £5 she received in payment was a bonus. When she moved to Holland she wrote humorous observations on expatriate life which were published in the monthly British Women’s Club magazine and on returning home to live in England she wrote technical articles for Practical Photography. It wasn’t until the start of the Covid-19 Pandemic that she was moved to write anything longer than an article. When lockdown was announced she felt a momentous event was about to unfold so in March 2020 she started to record the weekly progress of the pandemic in rhyming couplets. In January 2022 she completed her records and in April 2022 published her first book Covid Chronicles in Rhyme. A desire to start writing her second book “A Woman of Fortitude” came during a holiday in the Maldives in February 2024 when it was too rough to swim. She couldn’t spend hours in the water with her much-loved iridescent fish and delicate corals, so she decided to fill her time by starting to write her life story. She hasn’t always had an easy life but she found recalling and writing stories from her colourfully eclectic life stimulating and she hopes others will find A Woman of Fortitude a good read. Rosemary is already making notes for her next book ‘Bring Fun to life’.
GENRE: Autobiography
Blurb:
Positivity, determination and decisiveness bring triumph over adversity in a true-life story told with empathy and openness. A Woman of Fortitude is packed with fascinating tales as the author hops from continent to continent, but the real thread to the story is her constant positive approach to life and the way she solves the problems it brings. Marriage breakup is told with heart breaking intensity while internet dating brings humour and fun to the story.
