A Bolt For Freedom - The prequel to "Skeoch - Our new life on a Scottish hill farm"
Even before moving to Scotland with her actor husband Conrad Phillips, which is the amazing and heartwarming story told in 'Skeoch - Our new life on a Scottish hill farm', Jennie had led an adventurous and enterprising life.
She was brought up until the age of nine in a large, rambling house in Essex with two considerably older sisters, her twin brother having died in the womb. The family then moved around the South of England, which resulted in Jennie receiving a rather patchy education.
When she left school at the age of fifteen, she launched herself into the world of work as a secretary and Girl Friday (including in the Bulgarian Embassy where she learned enough Bulgarian to say that she didn't speak Bulgarian), finding her feet first with Kinocrat Films, and then Arrow Productions where she met various well-known figures in the acting world. Among these was Spike Milligan, whose love of practical jokes she witnessed at first hand.
Here also she met her future husband, Conrad Phillips, the star of the well-loved series 'William Tell'. They embarked on an unusual courtship. It included a tour of the submarine HMS Resolution whose periscope, she realized, was trained on the bench where the two of them had been sitting earlier!
Due to a difficult pregnancy, Jennie became unable to continue her work at Arrow Productions. Conrad's steady role in 'The Newcomers', however, allowed them finally to leave lodgings and have a mortgage and a home of their own.
In the end, London life lost its charm. As Jennie writes: "We did not escape from life: we ran full tilt eventually into splendid isolation; into a life which alternated between tranquility and hectic engagement with life, half way up a mountain."
Sample text:
There were many diverse characters that used to frequent The Queen's Elm. It was a pub that just seemed to attract oddballs, a lot of them actors, a lot of them criminals and also the Fulham Football Club! Quite often if we went there for a half of bitter (which is all we could afford sometimes) we were met with a lovely actor, Johnny Bay, who would immediately do his "Long John Silver" act, hunching his shoulders and screwing his face up in an attempt to look like Robert Newton. "Arrr Con lad - me fine fellow – what’re y‘avin’?" He was very entertaining even though a lot of the time he was a bit down on his uppers. Things looked up though, because he finally ended up married to Elaine Stritch and spent the rest of his life living in the Savoy Hotel. Michael Craig, the film director Guy Hamilton and Ronnie Fraser, who would order his famous "Fraser Specials" which started with a triple Vodka, Dry Vermouth and a splash of soda!. I met them all there at some time or another and one of the most charming of men, Bill Travers, who had the ability to make you feel you were the only person in the room.
This is the beautifully written prequel to Skeoch - also available on Amazon
UK Readers: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Skeoch-life-Scottish-hill-ebook/dp/B00ARYTX6G
US Readers: http://www.amazon.com/Skeoch-life-Scottish-hill-ebook/dp/B00ARYTX6G
Even before moving to Scotland with her actor husband Conrad Phillips, which is the amazing and heartwarming story told in 'Skeoch - Our new life on a Scottish hill farm', Jennie had led an adventurous and enterprising life.
She was brought up until the age of nine in a large, rambling house in Essex with two considerably older sisters, her twin brother having died in the womb. The family then moved around the South of England, which resulted in Jennie receiving a rather patchy education.
When she left school at the age of fifteen, she launched herself into the world of work as a secretary and Girl Friday (including in the Bulgarian Embassy where she learned enough Bulgarian to say that she didn't speak Bulgarian), finding her feet first with Kinocrat Films, and then Arrow Productions where she met various well-known figures in the acting world. Among these was Spike Milligan, whose love of practical jokes she witnessed at first hand.
Here also she met her future husband, Conrad Phillips, the star of the well-loved series 'William Tell'. They embarked on an unusual courtship. It included a tour of the submarine HMS Resolution whose periscope, she realized, was trained on the bench where the two of them had been sitting earlier!
Due to a difficult pregnancy, Jennie became unable to continue her work at Arrow Productions. Conrad's steady role in 'The Newcomers', however, allowed them finally to leave lodgings and have a mortgage and a home of their own.
In the end, London life lost its charm. As Jennie writes: "We did not escape from life: we ran full tilt eventually into splendid isolation; into a life which alternated between tranquility and hectic engagement with life, half way up a mountain."
Sample text:
There were many diverse characters that used to frequent The Queen's Elm. It was a pub that just seemed to attract oddballs, a lot of them actors, a lot of them criminals and also the Fulham Football Club! Quite often if we went there for a half of bitter (which is all we could afford sometimes) we were met with a lovely actor, Johnny Bay, who would immediately do his "Long John Silver" act, hunching his shoulders and screwing his face up in an attempt to look like Robert Newton. "Arrr Con lad - me fine fellow – what’re y‘avin’?" He was very entertaining even though a lot of the time he was a bit down on his uppers. Things looked up though, because he finally ended up married to Elaine Stritch and spent the rest of his life living in the Savoy Hotel. Michael Craig, the film director Guy Hamilton and Ronnie Fraser, who would order his famous "Fraser Specials" which started with a triple Vodka, Dry Vermouth and a splash of soda!. I met them all there at some time or another and one of the most charming of men, Bill Travers, who had the ability to make you feel you were the only person in the room.
This is the beautifully written prequel to Skeoch - also available on Amazon
UK Readers: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Skeoch-life-Scottish-hill-ebook/dp/B00ARYTX6G
US Readers: http://www.amazon.com/Skeoch-life-Scottish-hill-ebook/dp/B00ARYTX6G
