Anni Swinburn

Writer

I was born in Sheffield, and lived in Pitsmoor and Arbourthorne before moving with my parents when I was four years old into a new council maisonette on Blackstock Road.
I left Gleadless Valley Secondary Modern school on my fifteenth birthday with no qualifications and worked as a telephonist for the General Post office, as an assistant with the YHA and then trained as nursery nurse.
After working as a nanny in Rome for a year, I returned to work with the small Sheffield-based charity Halfway Home which supported young people recently discharged from psychiatric hospital, where I met Ted, who was involved in setting up the charity.
After this, I travelled overland to Asia and volunteered for six months with the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta.
After travelling on to Nepal, Burma and Thailand I returned to Sheffield, got married to Ted and had our three daughters in quick succession, living back on the Gleadless Valley estate.
I used the creche facilities at Hurlfield Adult Education Centre and completed several GCSE exams. My wonderful and encouraging English tutor, was the Sheffield writer, Berlie Doherty.
After a few years of juggling temporary jobs and childcare responsibilities I applied to Sheffield Hallam University, was accepted and subsequently completed a BA in Applied Social Studies and diploma in Social Work.
After which, I worked in Rotherham and Sheffield as a family social worker in child protection, fostering and adoption, and the specialist children’s disability team.
Throughout all this time, I wrote short stories, pieces for theatre and completed the part-time MA in Creative Writing at SHU in early 2000. I retired from social work in 2013, and over the years have welcomed eight grandchildren into the family and began the on-off process of writing my novel Mother House.

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© Anni Swinburn. All rights reserved.

Mother House Novel

My debut novel Mother House is available on Amazon.
It is a hybrid; a travelogue memoir with an exciting novel weaving throughout. A story of adventure, obsession, mental illness, trauma and recovery but above all it is about love in its many forms. It should appeal to readers who like fiction set in foreign lands from a feminist perspective touching on political, religious and family dynamics.
In 1978, Marianne should be preparing for her wedding but instead she flees her home city of Sheffield, buys a one-way ticket on a budget bus to India and sets off on the hippy trail. On a beach in Kerala, she witnesses a tragedy and forms a bond with a charismatic fellow traveller. They meet up later in Sri Lanka where she becomes captivated by him and begins to find the emotional and sexual connection she has been looking for. Will this relationship survive?
In 1997, Sister Marie-Agnes prepares to leave the convent where she has lived for almost two decades. She arrived there with a locked truck and no memory of her past. As she delves into the trunk can she come to terms with what she finds?I have compiled a Spotify music playlist for readers which I hope will evoke Marianne's emotional journey and bring it to life.

• Link to Mother House Spotify Playlist

• Poet and philosopher Radindranath Tagore is referred to in the novel. I would like to share a glimpse of his wisdom with you. A rare speech by Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore about world politics, recorded in 1930 but eerily relevant today.

• 1,000 Maniacs, fronted by Natalie Merchant, recorded ‘Peace Train’, a cover of a Cat Stephens song in 1987. I love the sentiment and meaning of this song, and Natalie Merchant is one of my favourite vocalists.

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