By Isle of Wight Observer
Local author, Jo Cooper, spent a successful weekend at Wolverton Manor garden fair, selling her series of Sky novels. Many bought a top-up, as they had read the first one or two, and wanted the second or third.
She was asked, constantly: “When is the next one being published?”
“I am in the research stage at the moment, as, although the series is fiction, I do like to get the facts right and be as accurate as possible,” Jo explained. “My mother, Betty Leigh Vigar, was a Red Cross nurse during World War II. She told a few stories; however, I can find nothing more. I contacted the Red Cross in July, who replied that they were ‘experiencing a vast demand of inquiries at the moment, and couldn’t reply at this time.’ I have been scouring the web, but can find nothing.
“I am hoping that, amongst the IW Observer’s readers, there may be someone who has some information about nurses and their duties on the Isle of Wight in WWII. It’s very many years since those frightening times – 85 years since the war begun, nearly 90 since it finished – but maybe someone has memories of stories told to them by relatives or friends of those times, or perhaps a reference training manual. Photos tell a lot, as do records. Please can you help me to find more about my mother’s work during the war.”
Can you help Jo, and the many readers who are waiting eagerly for her next book? You can email her at jocooperswimming@btopenworld.com, or call her on 567874.
