Frances Hern
poetry, non-fiction and children’s fiction
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Favourite Quotes:
"When the first-rate author wants an exquisite heroine or a lovely morning, he finds that all the superlatives have been worn shoddy by his inferiors. It should be a rule that bad writers must start with plain heroines and ordinary mornings, and, if they are able, work up to something better."
F. Scott Fitzgerald.
"Luck is when opportunity meets preparation." Robert Dugoni.
"Poetry is not a thing you get, it's a thing that gets you." Winnie-the-Pooh.
"A library is a storehouse of medicine for the mind." Leslie Zampetti.
Birthplace:
Near Tolkien Territory in Birmingham, England
How I came to live in Canada:
I moved here for a year with my husband who is a petroleum reservoir engineer. That was in 1973! We've lived in Canada ever since.
What I wanted to be aged 10:
A librarian in the old library at Perry Barr where I lived. I can still recall its unique smell of books, polish and leather and the hushed church-like quiet inside. I thought that date-stamping and re-shelving books must be the best job in the world.
What I wanted to be aged 20:
A research laboratory technician in the genetics department at Birmingham University. This was interesting and fun. On sunny afternoons, if I wasn't busy, I helped a friend catch grasshoppers in the nearby fields (for research into chromosome mapping). I got quite good at catching them in my cupped hands – a skill that came in handy when a daughter acquired three hungry, juvenile stick insects.
What I wanted to be aged 30:
A mother. I have one son and two daughters.
What I wanted to be aged 40:
A writer. I think I'd wanted to be this all along but this is when I found out and it began to seem possible. I still love to write. In fact I start to have withdrawal symptoms if I go for more than 3-4 days without writing something.
Favourite childhood books:
The Famous Five and Secret Seven books by Enid Blyton
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Carbonel by Barbara Sleigh
Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
Early teenage favourites:
War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
The Day of the Triffids and other titles by John Wyndham
Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Historical novels by Nigel Tranter
Regency romances by Georgette Heyer
Contact at:
FrancesHern a-t FrancesHern d-o-t ca