Linda Carlino - Authors Articles

Linda Carlino

The Early Years
I was born and spent my early yeas in a small mining village (Windlestone) at the southern edge of the Durham coalfield. My family loved books and had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, always seeking to widen their horizons. Not only did my parents love books, they bought books. And they even bought a large bookcase to house and protect them; a rare piece of furniture for a two up two down miner\'s cottage.
I had books bought for me for Christmas, for birthdays, and sometimes just because they looked interesting and were affordable. It wasn\'t too long before I was saving my pocket money to buy my own books. at the bookshop or the Schools\' Furnishing Store in Darlington. I also borrowed books from the County Lending Library held every Thursday evening in the assembly hall of the Boys\' Elementary School. All these books and my Arthur Mee\'s \'Children\'s Encyclopaedia\' were a constant source of wonder and delight. Most of them I read again and again.
My imagination was further fired by plays on the BBC Home Service. My father, never noted for his ability as an electrician, or for any other DIY talent, drilled a hole through the living room ceiling to pass a wire from our radio up to my bedroom and into a loudspeaker placed on the chest of drawers. \'Saturday Night Theatre\' swept me away to other times and other places as I lay curled up in my bed on dark winter nights, my feet now and then searching out the hot water bottle.

Education & Teaching Career
After Bishop Auckland Girls Grammar School I gained my teaching certificate at Wynyard Hall Training College.
A wonderful 34 year teaching career began at Gurney Pease Infant School in Darlington and, after being the Head Teacher at primary schools in East Harlsey (No. Yorks), Mickleton, West Auckland (Oakley Cross), I ended my career at Alderman Leach Infant School, Darlington.

Adult Life
44 years ago I married an American I had met in Paris. Early on we lived in Newton Aycliffe and Thornaby before settling in Barnard Castle in 1972. Our son lives in Bristol and, with his wife, owns and runs a computer consultancy company.

Writing Career
An amazing five week long trip to Spain in 1988 changed my life forever. Although it was my very first visit to Spain I did know quite a bit about it through H. V. Morton’s wonderful travel book A Stranger in Spain.
Apart from all the other more obvious attractions of that wonderful country, it was the history, particularly the historical connections with England that caught my attention: the tomb of Catherine of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt, in Toledo Cathedral; the church in Salamanca dedicated to St. Thomas a Becket, built by Queen Eleanor of Castile, daughter of our King Henry II; Pastrana, the home of the Princess of Eboli who was allegedly a mistress of King Philip II, at one time husband of Queen Mary Tudor. These all brought back memories of historical novels read in my teens.
And then one day we visited the small town of Tordesillas where Queen Juana I of Spain had been held prisoner for fifty years. H. V. Morton gave a brief but rather startling description of her as \'a maniac dressed in rags crouching on the floor surrounded by dishes of uneaten food\'.
This queen, sister of Catherine of Aragon, mother of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and grandmother of Philip II, was dealt with in those few words; dismissed as mad.
Yes, this brief comment by Morton started it all, started my mission. I was hooked. I had to find out about this Juana; Juana la Loca, Joan the Mad.
First I had to learn Spanish then my quest for information could begin.

Research & Writng
For years, not a day passed without my doing a couple of hours with several Spanish language text books. Meanwhile I was finding out more about Juana. The more references I came across the sadder I became at the increasing number of times she was dismissed in a few lines or less as being mad. But there was still a long way to go. My Spanish was good enough now to read Spanish sources. Exciting days were to follow in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid, other public and private libraries in Spain, and the British Library in London.
Fortunately, my husband had his own special topics to research so it was no great hardship for him to accompany me during many hours and he found it decidedly preferable to all the miles I\'d made him trek, footsore and weary, to take pictures of palaces, castles and cathedrals, or to check out tombs and monuments. Libraries were definitely more comfortable.

Yet life is never easy; as often as I discovered new and exciting \'facts\' I was faced with conflicting information, all from so-called authoritative sources.

More than 80 books later, mostly biographies but also plenty of historical fiction, I had enough information to form my own strong opinions and a growing frustration about the injustice meted out to Juana. I liberally shared my sentiments with my husband.

One day, I guess he had heard enough, he answered, \'If you feel so strongly about it why don\'t you write your own book about this Queen Juana?\'

Could I, a retired Primary and Infant Teacher, write historical fiction? My husband\'s challenge was enough; that is precisely what I did. I wrote That Other Juana.
Now what? After many attempts I finally found a literary agent in London who was impressed with my debut historical novel and encouraged me to continue with my writing. Her efforts secured me my first contract and That Other Juana will be published in Portugal this year.
In 2006 I was elected a member of the Society of Authors.
Meanwhile with much help from my husband we formed our own publishing company, VeritasPublishing, in order to get the book into people’s hands and get it read.
But having done so much research and discovered so many fascinating stories I found I just had to carry on writing. A Matter of Pride (Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor) has recently been published (May 1st) and Wives & Other Women (Philip II of Spain) will be published later this year.
I have given readings and led discussions at Barnard Castle Library and Darlington Library and have given a talk about my writing to a charity coffee morning at Barnard Castle Golf Club.
A meeting with several Dale library reading groups will take place on July 1st.
An interview on Radio Teesdale is scheduled for 6 pm June 11th.

My books are available at the Teesdale Mercury shops in Barnard Castle and Middleton in Teesdale and Curlews bookshop in Barnard Castle and via my website www.VeritasPublishing.co.uk
For each book sold locally I am donating £1 to the Great North Air Ambulance.

Other Interests
But it’s not all sitting at home reading, studying and writing.
I have been and still am a very active member of Barnard Castle Golf Club which I joined in 1973. I was Captain of the Ladies’ Section in 1978 and recently I was selected to play for the County Ladies Veterans. In 1982 I made both the local and national press headlines when I ran for election to the Golf Club’s main committee, The Management Committee, traditionally a male preserve. I won my place and, eventually, even my most vociferous male opponents had to concede that maybe a woman could make a useful contribution.

Linda Carlino - Articles

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