Jeevani Charika and Rhoda Baxter

This week, romantic comedy writer Sheryl Browne shares her Inheritance Books. Hi Sheryl, welcome to Inheritance Books. Tell me a bit about yourself.

Hi Rhoda! Thanks so much for having me on your wonderful Inheritance Feature.  I’ll try not to take up too much space – though, like most writers nowadays, I’m a multi-tasker extraordinaire so it’s hard sometimes to squish it all in.  Ok, so, I grew up in Birmingham in the UK where I studied Art & Design.  I’m a partner in my own business, a mother and a foster parent to disabled dogs.  I write ‘Fabulous, Funny, Heart-breaking Romantic Comedy’ (thank you JB Johnston at Brook Cottage Books for my lovely tagline!) and am published with Safkhet Publishing, who commissioned me to write my debut book, RECIPES FOR DISASTER, which combines deliciously different recipes with sexilicious romantic comedy and was recently shortlisted for the Innovation in Romantic Fiction Festival of Romance Award.  I’ve since been offered a further three-book contract under the Safkhet Publishing Soul imprint.  SOMEBODY TO LOVE, a romantic comedy centring around a single father’s search for love and his autistic little boy, launched July 1. WARRANT FOR LOVE, Blackmail, lies, adultery, entrapment – three couples in a twisting story that resolves perfectly – released August 1 and A LITTLE BIT OF MADNESS –White Knight in Blue rescues the Harbour Rest Home – releases Valentine’s Day 2013.

Which books did you inherit from the generation above? Why is it special?

Sadly, I lost my parents when I was quite young and family history is therefore a bit sketchy.  What I do know, though, is that I inherited my father’s love of books and remember with a mixture of fondness and awe his entire Charles Dickens leather-bound collection (woe betide anyone who turned down the corner of a page).

Obviously, this instilled in me a great reverence for books.  I adore old books, the binding the typeface, the history within the pages, they are all fascinating to me.  I would love therefore to share what I regard as my little treasure trove, which was inherited, but I’m not quite sure how it was handed down.  I don’t think I need to wax lyrical about it.  The books, I feel, tell their own story:

Which book would you leave for later generations? Why?

My favourite read as a child and the book I think would leave to future generations is A Kestrel for a Knave (Kes) by Barry Hines, a coming of age novel which tells the story of a young Yorkshire boy, Billy Casper, who finds solace from a life of bullying and neglect by rearing a wild kestrel he calls Kes.  The book is set in the 1960s but there’s a wonderful timelessness to the story.  Billy’s father has left and his mother and older brother spend most of their evenings in the pub while Billy fends for himself, pouring the love he craves into raising his kestrel.  At school Billy is shunned by his classmates and considered dim and a troublemaker by his teachers.  One enlightened teacher, however, encourages Billy to talk about his kestrel and he proves himself knowledgeable, articulate and passionate, incidentally sharing with his classmates the value of study.  It’s a beautifully written book, humorous, sad, the imagery painted evocative and powerful.   Kes is a story most people, adult and young alike, can relate to.  It certainly encouraged me to keep reading – and never to judge a book by its cover.

Thanks for sharing your Inheritance Books, Sheryl. Good luck with your book.

Sheryl’s new book A Little Bit of Madness is available now. You can catch up with Sheryl on her website (www.sherylbrowne.com) , Twitter (@sherylbrowne) and on Loveahappyending.com where she is a featured author and editor.