Dangerous Games, Gillian Godden Paperback

A Word from the Author: Gillian Godden

I lived in London for over thirty years and met some great interesting people while I was there. I worked in and around the Hackney road as a barmaid at some of the local stripper pubs. They were all lovely women and all with some fantastic stories to tell. I eventually married and moved to Camberwell south London and had my son Robert who now lives back in Streatham London. He has currently been studying at Westminster University as a bio medical student.

    After living in Clifford Road, Walthamstow for a while (miss that dog track! it was great fun!) my mother who was known as 'Madge' who was originally from Yorkshire wanted to return to her roots when she fell ill with her first stroke. Myself and Robert got the council house next door to her. It was great fun although she lived in mine most of the time. Yorkshire is a much slower pace than london and the house had a huge garden which was lovely to bring my son up in. I went back to college as my old GCSE s were no good and retrained in business and admin, eventually getting a job at a local doctors surgery. I knew nothing about the industry but learnt how and why so many 'Carry on', movies were made, such as "carry on Doctor" and "carry on matron", some very funny stories believe me.

  I would like to go back to london, I miss it very much. No pie and mash here i'm afraid.! I especially miss the weekends in Southend on Sea, my most favourite place in the world. (sad or what?) I hoped to retire there some day which is why I used Southend as a base for my book 'Francesca' and where she lived.

I once entered a competition at my local library, anyone could write a story, having time on my hands I decided to give it a go. Writing 'Francesca', I didnt win the P&O ferry cruise nor the hundred pounds, I lost out to a man who wrote his memoirs about his life with racing pigeons!!lol!
My neighbour Avril who is a retired english and maths teacher, encouraged me to carry on writing. After many rejections and for one reason or another I fell for the patter of a vanity publisher and seriously regret it, they produced a badly edited book and never gave the promotion I was promised. I suppose it was a starting block and a learning curve. I was about to hang up my pen when I took the bull by the horns and posted my book on the Martina Cole bookclub. Clubs dont usually allow you to post but I had nothing to lose if they booted me out and deleted it. Surprisingly they didnt and when people saw the post they went on to Amazon and bought it. The reviews were amazing and at last 'Francesca' had a platform!
Readers then started asking me about my main character and gangland boss Tony and his beginnings. With this in mind I wrote 'Dangerous Games', found a decent editor and the response has been amazing, it now has over a 100 reviews! (and to think I was going to hang up my pen!) I carried on from "Dangerous games" to "Nasty business" giving an insight to his rise of notorioty. This has annoyed people because my books go backwards, but hey! it worked for Star Wars!!!

    I am currently writing the last in the saga/ series which will wind the story up. I am still a penniless author! I dont know why people think you're earning millions when you're only selling your books for 1.99 or 99p and I still havent been paid anything from the vanity publisher. Thank god for my day job! writing and reading is my hobby and if just one person reads my books and enjoys them it makes it all worthwhile. I never thought they would see the light of day. I now live alone in Hull, Yorkshire, with my dog Susie, and so I work, write and walk the dog. My son was on his way to work the other day, while on the bus a lady was reading my book and saw him staring at it. 'This is a great book. I don't know the author, have you ever heard of Gillian Godden'? she asked him, 'No', he said shaking his head embarrassed that his mum writes about Strip pubs and gangsters !! To think he actually told me this and thought I would laugh ?? Thanks mate. I'll remember that when you want to borrow some money from my ill gotten gains!! lol !!