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Roberta was born and brought up in the very beautiful English Lake District, noted for its famous residents and their guests. To name a few: William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy, Shelley, Lord Byron, John Ruskin, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey – and more. Now a World Heritage site with stunning scenery and a special atmosphere created by many features such as the nail-biting mountain passes (not for nervous drivers) it attracts both tourists and people wanting to live in the area permanently. Being born there makes Roberta a local. Tom and Muriel Smithies, her parents, while being totally accepted, were never true locals.
Roberta had an idyllic countryside upbringing amongst both the local community and her parents’ literary friends:
long hot summers, river walks, sparkling lakes and tarns, woolly bleating sheep and mooing cows in green, green fields. Her aunt Doris Howe gave names to two resident ducks on the river at Elterwater, Freda and Freddie, who then had many adventures along the banks as Roberta and her aunt took early morning walks by the peacefully running, dappled and tree-lined water. Winters always seemed to have crisp snow perfect for toboganning and when lucky tarns froze over for ice skating. A typical summer school activity was learning to sail or swim in Windermere. The term ‘Windermere‘ applies to both the lake and town of Windermere, which is over a mile away. Many of the words and names in the Lake District Cumbrian dialect come from the Norse language. A number of Roberta’s friends moved away to big cities, the lure of bright lights and varied work too much to refuse.Roberta joined them. Sadly those friends never returned – Roberta did.
After twenty or so years in London, two in Spain and lots of travel, including destinations in Europe, the Far East, India, China, Africa, Australia, the USA, and Canada – where she has close relatives on Vancouver Island and exchange visits are encouraged – she came back to the Lakes from her two years in Spain. These locations will provide the backgrounds for the future fun adventure ‘Azalea and I’ books. The next one already in the pipeline is ‘Azalea and I – On the road to Spain’.
During Roberta’s time in London, discovering she didn’t suit office work, she turned to property development: she would buy a house, live in it amongst all the mess and dust of renovation and then selling it on to buy the next. More glamorously, she tried modelling, advertising and minor acting, appearing on the ‘Richard and Judy’ TV show. Much later, she would appear on ‘Fantasy Homes by the Sea’ in Barcelona and ‘A Place in the Sun’ in Costa Rica.
Back in the Lake District she turned half her home into a holiday let, advertising and running it herself. With views to die for, her visitors enjoyed the fabulous location and dog-friendly atmosphere of the pubs in the area. It was hard work but always fun; her guests may (anonymously, of course!) be the subject of another story one day.
Writing came in fits and starts. Always a prolific writer, school essays were far too long (one teacher asked her to shorten the essays as she hadn’t the time to read them) and books were too short. Many half-written novels lurked in drawers but the positive action of digging out some of her mother’s unpublished manuscripts spurred her on to re-write ‘Azalea and I’ and start the next in the series set in Spain.
