Born and raised in Birmingham, England, Val was swept into teaching during the Great Teacher Shortage of... well, let’s just call it “a while back.” Her dreams of jet-setting as an air stewardess were quickly replaced by lesson plans and chalk dust. After wrangling classrooms in inner-city Birmingham, she packed her bags and followed her family to Canada—where she discovered her British teaching credentials were about as useful as a chocolate teapot.
Never one to back down, Val juggled a day job at the Bank of Montreal while earning her Canadian degrees by night. After 25+ years of surviving as a classroom, French, and Special Education teacher, she retired and dove into her true passion: writing.
Now an award-winning author of historical fiction, Val finds spinning tales a lot more fun than grading essays. She also moonlights as a qualified developmental editor on Fiverr—so if your manuscript needs a little tough love (and a dash of British wit), you know where to find her!
Born and raised in Birmingham, England, Val was swept into teaching during the Great Teacher Shortage of... well, let’s just call it “a while back.” Her dreams of jet-setting as an air stewardess were quickly replaced by lesson plans and chalk dust. After wrangling classrooms in inner-city Birmingham, she packed her bags and followed her family to Canada—where she discovered her British teaching credentials were about as useful as a chocolate...
London, 1933 As darkness gathers across Europe, one small cinema becomes a beacon of hope—and a target for hatred. When cinema manager William Bishop begins quietly helping Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany, he transforms the struggling Majestic Cinema into something far more dangerous than a neighborhood picture house. With the help of his...
South London, 1937: The Majestic Cinema stands at the edge of change as the world advances inevitably toward war. Reginald Hastings never meant to run a picture house. Sent down from Oxford and handed the keys to the Majestic by a father who expects little, Reggie finds himself in charge of a fading cinema and a staff who know the business—and...
London, 1940. The bombs fall, the blackout deepens, and the Majestic Cinema stands as a fragile beacon in the heart of South London. Inside its battered walls, a cast of ordinary men and women—projectionists, ticket-sellers, signalmen, and dreamers—find themselves bound together by circumstance, loyalty, and the stubborn hope that endures even...
