Profile: Marian Bull

About This Author

|Marian Bull lived a happy family life in Brixham in South Devon until the age of nineteen. She has vivid memories of the war and post war years, which she uses for the background of her first novel. In nineteen forty eight she moved to Culmstock, a village on the Devon Somerset border. She was supervisor in the school canteen where over five hundred meals were prepared each day for eight schools in the surrounding area. After her marriage, and birth of the first of her two sons, she moved to a farm where her husband was herdsman and then shepherd. She often helped him in his work, especially at lambing time. Amongst the many things she tackled over the years was; correspondent to six local papers; Parish Clerk, clerk to the local charities, school manager. She also took on a country milk round, a post round, went strawberry picking and helped in the local Post Office Stores. Her many hobbies include gardening, dressmaking, woodwork, painting and decorating, oil painting, and rag rug making. In her late forties she joined a calligraphy class. She thoroughly enjoyed the craft as well as researching quotes and poetry to illustrate with her lettering. Her tutor surprised her when she was showing a fellow student how to tackle elementary gilding by suggesting that she would make a good teacher. At the age of fifty-two she began to teach adult education classes which she thoroughly enjoyed. By the time she retired at sixty five she had taught in seven different centres. Soon after her husband’s death twelve years ago she joined a creative writing class. When her son fitted her up with a hand me down computer, she struggled to master IT, and now thoroughly enjoys its countless possibilities. She wrote her first novel, Cloud Man, and put it to one side. After the shock of her elder son Michael’s sudden death earlier this year, she decided that she needed a project. Preparing Cloud Man was the answer and she has edited it thoroughly and now is ready to publish.