I am delighted to introduce our new VMBooks website, under the brilliant management of my designer Paul Downes, Creative Director of GD Associates in Witney, Oxfordshire. Paul and I have worked together for more than twelve years. I could not have created VMBooks six years ago without his imagination, technical knowledge and experience.
Also crucial to my small team are my magnificent Editor, Debi Alper, whose report on Larkswood transmuted it from good to excellent, thus encouraging the great publisher Orion to buy it; and Andrew Chapman, owner of his company Prepare to Publish in Charlbury, Oxfordshire. Andrew is a fountain of wisdom and guidance in the murky, often dangerous waters of self-publishing.
We are proof that small is beautiful. We hope you will agree.
Photo by Chris Challis Photography
featured work
As the Second World War begins to take its toll, Louisa’s work as a Red Cross nurse is threatened with extinction. Will the same happen to her love affair with Thomas?
Louisa Hamilton arrives at Larkswood to meet her grandfather for the first time. What is Edward hiding from her – and will she find the courage to discover the truth?
As the summer holidays begin, Dan becomes aware of a stranger who haunts his every move. How dangerous is he – and will Dan be brave enough to stop him in his criminal tracks?
Family, friends and lovers dominate this second collection of Valerie’s poems as she explores, remembers and describes special episodes and life-changing events.
latest poetry
For Chris Litle and Angie Cox
I have been a writer all my life. When I’m not scribbling with ink on paper, I’m bashing away at my computer, editing, checking and rewriting. Or I’m gardening, cleaning, housekeeping or pushing my trolley around the Woodstock shops. My hands bear the brunt.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome can strike with an almighty vengeance. The muscle in the wrist thickens and hardens, preventing blood from flowing into the hand and fingers. I have been rescued twice by Chris Little at The Manor Hospital in Oxford. Without his unique experience and skill, I’d have retired to a cottage in Cornwall three ago and put my feet – and my hands – permanently up.
On Returning Home from London
The arrival of Covid halted my plans to travel anywhere, let alone from Woodstock to London by train: a journey I used to love, both for business and pleasure. When freedom returned, my courage failed to follow suit. For several more years I went nowhere.
But I decided to return to my beloved London optician and now by private taxi. The noise of early-morning rush-hour traffic, the speed, the hold-ups, the density of vehicles came as an almighty shock. I’d forgotten how travel has become a modern obsession. Why are so many of us never happy unless we are travelling somewhere – and then trying to get home?
For Gillian Morris
Woodstock used to have its own library. It wasn’t huge but it was wonderful. It had chairs and tables as well as books. A section specially for children, where parents could come on Saturday mornings to talk and take their pick.
Where daily newspapers could be poured over. Where the latest top-selling novel arrived if you asked for it. Where a hundred questions could be whispered – and answered with confidence and flair.
The library was demolished several years ago. Its death is an outrage in a town that boasts two thriving bookshops, The Woodstock Bookshop and Save the Children, and a population longing for its proper return in a space large enough to sit, breathe, think and learn in comfort and under decent lights.
Here is my tribute to a top Librarian, now sadly retired, who deserves a medal for her services to Woodstock readers.