My name is Chetty Mobola Christina Reis.
Despite the Nigerian first names, I have never been to Africa and was born and grew up in Stockport, Greater Manchester with my white grandmother and mixed race mother.
My name is Chetty Mobola Christina Reis,(Walker.)
Despite the Nigerian first names, I have never been to Africa and was born and grew up in Stockport, Greater Manchester with my white grandmother and mixed race mother.
I knew no other black families and was the only black child in my school. My Nigerian father was a radio engineer and my mother served in the ATS during the 2nd World War.
I have always used my stories and poetry as an escape and wrote my first novel when I was fifteen. I have been writing ever since, but only shared my work recently.
I started training as a nurse on my eighteenth birthday and became a nurse, midwife and health visitor. I also spent some time on sabbatical leave in India, where I taught midwifery to young student nurses in a hospital in a crowded inner city neighbourhood in Chennai.
After I took semiretirement from my post as a health advisor for asylum seekers and travellers I joined the Society of Medical Writers and my articles, short stories and poems regularly win prizes and are published in their biannual magazine. I am still involved with the asylum seekers in my area on a voluntary basis and have many friends from all corners of the world.
I did some research on the life and conditions of poverty stricken families in industrial Manchester in the early nineteenth century and wrote a play based on stories my grandmother told me about her harsh childhood. I entered it in a competition and it was recommended, but so far has never been performed. My research taught me many facts about my Scottish great grandmother which made me realise that she was a very strong woman who led a short and challenging life.
She came to live in Stockport and married a neighbour when she was nineteen years old. My great grandfather was a carter who liked his beer and his wife earned money by making dresses for music hall artists and taking in laundry. She buried four children and was pregnant for the eleventh time when she died in a typhoid fever epidemic aged thirty four. Her six remaining children survived typhoid and lived to old age. The stories my grandmother told me as a child were intended to make me grateful for my circumstances. It didn’t have any effect until I started to research the conditions of everyday life of the poor in the Manchester area in the early nineteen hundreds. Since then, she has been an inspiration.
I spent some time in India, in a crowded part of Chennai, teaching midwifery to student nurses and also working in an orphanage run by nuns. I learnt a lot about culture and tradition. Chennai was home to a large mix of religions and beliefs at that time.
I brought up my five children as a single parent, so writing was my luxury retreat for many years, to offset a stressful job and occasionally, an equally stressful home life. Now I am able to choose my leisure activities I find I am enjoying creating the written word just as much.
I have written two novels with the intent of publication, entitled ‘No Relation’ and ‘So this is England’ and I am currently writing a third, called ‘Relative Strangers., which is a sequel to “No Relation.’
My poems have been included in several anthologies, and I co-edited and contributed to ‘Poets on Prescription,’ a collection of poems centred on the experiences of medical workers.
I knew no other black families and was the only black child in my school. My Nigerian father was a radio engineer and my mother served in the ATS during the 2nd World War.
I have always used my stories and poetry as an escape and wrote my first novel when I was fifteen. I have been writing ever since, but only shared my work recently.
I started training as a nurse on my eighteenth birthday and became a nurse, midwife and health visitor. I also spent some time on sabbatical leave in India, where I taught midwifery to young student nurses in a hospital in a crowded inner city neighbourhood in Chennai.
After I took semiretirement from my post as a health advisor for asylum seekers and travellers I joined the Society of Medical Writers and my articles, short stories and poems regularly win prizes and are published in their biannual magazine. I am still involved with the asylum seekers in my area on a voluntary basis and have many friends from all corners of the world.
I did some research on the life and conditions of poverty stricken families in industrial Manchester in the early nineteenth century and wrote a play based on stories my grandmother told me about her harsh childhood. I entered it in a competition and it was recommended, but so far has never been performed.
My research taught me many facts about my Scottish great grandmother which made me realise that she was a very strong woman who led a short and challenging life.
She came to live in Stockport and married a neighbour when she was nineteen years old. My great grandfather was a carter who liked his beer and his wife earned money by making dresses for music hall artists and taking in laundry. She buried four children and was pregnant for the eleventh time when she died in a typhoid fever epidemic aged thirty four. Her six remaining children survived typhoid and lived to old age. The stories my grandmother told me as a child were intended to make me grateful for my circumstances. It didn’t have any effect until I started to research the conditions of everyday life of the poor in the Manchester area in the early nineteen hundreds. Since then, she has been an inspiration.
I spent some time in India, in a crowded part of Chennai, teaching midwifery to student nurses and also working in an orphanage run by nuns. I learnt a lot about culture and tradition. Chennai was home to a large mix of religions and beliefs at that time.
I brought up my five children as a single parent, so writing was my luxury retreat for many years, to offset a stressful job and occasionally, an equally stressful home life. Now I am able to choose my leisure activities I find I am enjoying creating the written word just as much.
I have written two novels with the intent of publication, entitled ‘No Relation’ and ‘So this is England’ and I am currently writing a third, called ‘Relative Strangers., which is a sequel to “No Relation.’
My poems have been included in several anthologies, and I co-edited and contributed to ‘Poets on Prescription,’ a collection of poems centred on the experiences of medical workers.
My name is Chetty Mobola Christina Reis.
Despite the Nigerian first names, I have never been to Africa and was born and grew up in Stockport, Greater Manchester with my white grandmother and mixed race mother.
I knew no other black families and was the only black child in my school. My Nigerian father was a radio engineer and my mother served in the ATS during the 2nd World War.
I have always used my stories and poetry as an escape and wrote my first novel when I was fifteen. I have been writing ever since, but only shared my work recently.
I started training as a nurse on my eighteenth birthday and became a nurse, midwife and health visitor. I also spent some time on sabbatical leave in India, where I taught midwifery to young student nurses in a hospital in a crowded inner city neighbourhood in Chennai.
After I took semiretirement from my post as a health advisor for asylum seekers and travellers I joined the Society of Medical Writers and my articles, short stories and poems regularly win prizes and are published in their biannual magazine. I am still involved with the asylum seekers in my area on a voluntary basis and have many friends from all corners of the world.
I did some research on the life and conditions of poverty stricken families in industrial Manchester in the early nineteenth century and wrote a play based on stories my grandmother told me about her harsh childhood. I entered it in a competition and it was recommended, but so far has never been performed.
My research taught me many facts about my Scottish great grandmother which made me realise that she was a very strong woman who led a short and challenging life.
She came to live in Stockport and married a neighbour when she was nineteen years old. My great grandfather was a carter who liked his beer and his wife earned money by making dresses for music hall artists and taking in laundry.
She buried four children and was pregnant for the eleventh time when she died in a typhoid fever epidemic aged thirty four. Her six remaining children survived typhoid and lived to old age. The stories my grandmother told me as a child were intended to make me grateful for my circumstances. It didn’t have any effect until I started to research the conditions of everyday life of the poor in the Manchester area in the early nineteen hundreds. Since then, she has been an inspiration.
I spent some time in India, in a crowded part of Chennai, teaching midwifery to student nurses and also working in an orphanage run by nuns. I learnt a lot about culture and tradition. Chennai was home to a large mix of religions and beliefs at that time.
I brought up my five children as a single parent, so writing was my luxury retreat for many years, to offset a stressful job and occasionally, an equally stressful home life. Now I am able to choose my leisure activities I find I am enjoying creating the written word just as much.
I have written two novels with the intent of publication, entitled ‘No Relation’ and ‘So this is England’ and I am currently writing a third, called ‘Relative Strangers., which is a sequel to “No Relation.’
My poems have been included in several anthologies, and I co-edited and contributed to ‘Poets on Prescription,’ a collection of poems centred on the experiences of medical workers.