Special Offer on Author Talks

I’m offering special author talks about my book Girl in a Smart Uniform. This might be suitable for your NWR, U3A, reading group or your class at school. 

The subjects of interest are: the Holocaust, Nazi Germany, 1940s, World War II, feminism, disability, sexuality, writing process, research process. 

I’m offering 40 minute talks free of charge, followed by a Q & A. I can offer longer talks for a fee and in any case I welcome opportunities to sell the book. The talks will be on-line via Zoom or a similar platform. They will be recorded and a copy of the recording will be made available to you.  

If you are interested, please contact me via the contact form. 

Details of the book are shown below. Click on the image above to take you to Amazon.

"Girl in a Smart Uniform" is the third book in the Schellberg Cycle, a collection of novels inspired by a bundle of photocopied letters that arrived at a small cottage in Wales in 1979. The letters give us first-hand insights into what life was like growing up in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.

It is the most fictional of the stories to date, though some characters, familiar to those who have read the first two books, appear again here. Clara Lehrs, Karl Schubert and Dr Kühn really existed. We have a few, a very few, verifiable facts about them. The rest we have had to find out by repeating some of their experiences and by using the careful writer's imagination.

Gisela adores her brother Bear, her gorgeous BDM uniform, and her little half-brother Jens. She does her best to be a good German citizen, and is keen to help restore Germany to its former glory. She becomes a competent and respected BDM leader. But life begins to turn sour. Her oldest brother Kurt can be violent, she soon realises that she is different from other girls, she feels uncomfortable around her mother’s new lover, and there is something not quite right about Jens. It becomes more and more difficult to be the perfect German young woman.

We know that BDM girls set fire to the house in Schellberg Street but got the children out first. This story seeks to explain what motivated the girls to do that, and what happened to them afterwards."

Judy Waite’s "Game Girls"

This is an excellent read. It tells the story of three girls who go on the game. One is poor, one is over-sexed and one has been abused. These may be reasons not excuses. The surface reason, though, seems to be that they need money – or at least Alix, the ring-leader does and the other two need her friendship. It all becomes complex and dangerous very quickly.
Judy Waite uses a third person present tense narrative and does move though the view points of the three girls. She provides a strong sense of time and place. This with the strong narrative voice gives the reader an emotional closeness to the three main characters. We are able to see them as human and understand why they do what they do.
Waite certainly pushed boundaries with this novel but at least she gives us an honest and open glimpse of something which is of concern for many young women. As well as taking on this very big issue, the author also explores the frequent Young Adult themes of sexuality, relationships, risk-taking and peer pressure.
I personally read this book very quickly and couldn’t put it down.