AN AUTHOR from Stratton is delighted to announce the publication of her first novel, with a second due to be published later in the year.

Dee Noakes, writing under her maiden name of Dee MacDonald, only began to write women’s fiction after retirement, and now has a two-book deal with online publisher, Bookouture.

Her first novel, The Runaway Wife, is the story of 66-year-old Connie’s escape from a husband who mostly ignores her and a family who take her completely for granted. So one day, Connie decides to leave them all to it and sets off around the country in her little car.

The people she meets and the experiences she has all help her to come to a decision about her future.

Dee thinks a lot of women will identify with this. Her message is that people don’t need to do anything so dramatic, but that it’s never too late to make changes to their life and have some fun!

Dee, who is Scottish, loved writing stories as a child, but then ‘life got in the way’. At 18, she headed for London, typed her way around the West End, flew as a stewardess with British Airways and then BOAC for eight years, was a sales representative, a market researcher, the receptionist at the Thames TV Studios and, finally, ran a small B&B in Bude for ten years.

Dee now lives in Stratton with her husband, with her son and family living nearby. She assures everyone that she has no intention of ‘doing a Connie’!

Dee survived bowel cancer 14 years ago and has recently completed a year of gruelling treatment for breast cancer. She said: “Writing has been my escape and my therapy.”

The Runaway Wife is now available online as an e-book, paperback and audio book.