About Me
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t write stories. Before I could write, I drew the ponies, princesses and castles that were the stuff of stories. As an only child, I was never happier than when I had a drawing book or a story for company. Books, pencils, scissors, were constant companions. Some things don’t change.
I was born near Swansea and moved to Shropshire, my father's home county, when I was five, and here I stayed until University. I studied English, French and German in London, then worked as a secretary in South Kensington, writing in my spare time, as well as making patchwork quilts, sewing and crocheting.
Moving back to Shropshire, with two small children, was idyllic. I kept writing whenever I had time, and eventually discovered an enthusiasm for murder mysteries. It took me ten years to complete my first novel, Death in the Physic Garden with a lot of useful input from my then agent. The sequel, Death in the Winter Garden was published in Autumn 2010. It had taken a mere seven years to write.
In April 2007, I came across the Craft Robo eletronic cutter and I began to create hand-made cards. About the same time I discovered a renewed interest in patchwork, quilting and textile art, and I launched a new series in 2012, The Quilt Detective, with the first novel, A Patchwork of Poison , introducing textile artist Bronwen Jones. The second book in the series, Motif for Murder was published in Spring 2014. Both books are on sale as ebooks and paperbacks from Amazon. I am still working on the third in the series, although progress is slow due to failing eyesight and general health problems. I also started painting again, just before Covid struck, mainly in acrylics, and also completed my City & Guilds level 3 course in patchwork and quilting which opened up a whole new range of creative ideas involving textiles. Along the way I became engrossed in family history, particularly as my mother married a Devonshire farmer, and her father's family had originally come from the same area. There are tenuous links between the two branches. I was fascinated to discover one relative who had grown up on Exmoor, North Devon, was R D Blackmore, famed as a late Victorian author alongside Thomas Hardy, and who had written Lorna Doone using our family name, Ridd.
The Devon side of the family go back a long way, with traceable links virtually to the Normans. It had never occurred to me before that the surname, Norman, my mother's side of the family, was more than likely an accurate description in much the same way that Smiths and Leadbetters were named for their crafts. Through marriage, the family had links to the Giffards who, in 1242, acquired the village of Clovelly from William the Conqueror's family (Walter Giffard was one of William's advisers and a Norman). And it was a total surprise to find my father's side of the family farmed in Wales for generations and were all Welsh speaking. His grandparents' farm still stands on the banks where the rivers Severn and Vyrnwy meet, so they were certainly no strangers to flooding. His grandmother went to farm over the border in Brynore, Ellesmere, Shropshire, close to where his parents ran one of the pubs in Cockshutt, the Crown, which I can well remember visiting as a child. Mum's maternal side came from the potteries, and featured several pottery painters. We were related to famous Chelsea potter Charles Vyse, so it was with great interest that we went to see some of his and his wife's work on display in Aberystwth Art Centre. A small world indeed.
Copyright Karen Lowe
Updated October 2024
Somerset Maugham said there were three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately no one knows what they are.
Contact at kaz el1@ out look. com
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