Thank you for your interest and welcome to my website. My writing journey has been a long one and I only began writing fiction when I retired. Now I can’t stop!

I have always written non-fiction, usually articles connected to my work in the NHS and the University of Manchester. I trained as a nurse in the 1960s and had several different posts as a Staff Nurse and Ward Sister. I trained as a Nurse Tutor at the end of the 1970s and worked in three Schools of Nursing over the next eight years. I’m currently planning a memoir of these experiences which were so different to the NHS of today. Although we worked very hard, we also had fun and I loved every minute of it.  

My work life began to change as I became interested in counselling due to my own experience of marriage guidance (now Relate). I worked part-time as a Nurse Tutor and eventually trained as a Counsellor at Relate. Over the next few years I developed this side of my career, starting a private practice, taking an M.Ed in Psychodynamic Counselling, and then training as an NHS Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist. I worked on the counselling courses at Manchester University for six years, and set up a one-year course in Counselling Supervision. I returned to the NHS in 1992 working as a Psychotherapist in North Manchester until I retired in 2004. I wound down my private practice over the next two years and began to write.

I researched and wrote my family history. I wrote short stories. I wanted to write a novel. I soon realised that I had a lot to learn. I took a six-month weekly novel writing course run by the Guardian newspaper and the University of East Anglia and continued learning by taking an MA Creative Writing at Manchester University. I graduated in 2015.

To date I have written and published two books, The Chatelaine of Montaillou, an historical novel which I self-published, and Britannia Street, a memoir due to be published by Cinnamon Press on 1^st November 2021. I wrote this under my maiden name, Beth Cox which was also my great grandmother’s name. The reason for this will become clear to the reader.  My Journal and each book  page will give more information about these books and how I wrote them. I have a second historical novel nearly completed, which needs yet more editing. I’m hoping it will be finished this year. The title will be The Good Shepherd and the Last Perfect.

I plan to update my Journal page regularly. I hope you will enjoy it.