Childhood tales brought to life
Retired district nurse Linda Boddison first invented her tales of a friendly spider called Jeremy to keep her young son and daughter entertained.
Now, almost two decades later, she is sharing her stories with the world after becoming the author of a children’s book.
“When my children were little we were going on our first camping trip. My husband had a poorly eye and had to go to the hospital so I sat in the car with the children while we waited for him.
“I noticed a little spider on the wing mirror of the car and I made up a story about this spider and said ‘shall we call him Jeremy’.
“Everywhere we went after that we had stories about Jeremy and his adventures. My children are in their 20s now and they’ve grown up with Jeremy.
"The first story I made up in the car. A few years later I started writing them down. They used to say ‘mum you should get a book published’.
“It had always seemed too difficult before but lockdown gave me the time to look at it. I sent it off to the publisher, waited eight weeks and then they sent me a letter saying it was a charming story and they would be happy to publish it,” says Linda, who lives with her husband, John, in Priorslee, Telford.
Jeremy’s Night-Time Adventure has been published by Austin Macauley Publishing Company and Linda says was ‘amazing’ to see her much-loved character brought to life.
Her family, especially daughter Hayley, a 25-year-old primary school teacher, and son Tom, a 22-year-old guitar teacher and university student. are equally delighted with the book.
