Finding inspiration and friendship at Renaissance Marlborough

When author Nancy-Lou Deane moved to Renaissance Marlborough two years ago, she could never have known that a fellow homeowner would become the inspiration for her latest book.

Nancy’s new picture book titled ‘Little Mouse’, published in October 2021, came to be after she decided to write a story as a gift for her friend, Bob Bovington, who she’d met at Renaissance Marlborough. 

“The idea for ‘Little Mouse’ came through Bob just sending me an email which he signed off with a little mouse. His birthday was coming up and I thought ‘what can I give Bob for his Birthday, oh I’ll quickly write him a story’. I always said I couldn’t write babies books and I’d never ever tried but this just fell into place, from the moment I received that emoji mouse from Bob.” 

The story was initially written just as a gift, but it was Bob’s encouragement and support that pushed Nancy to publish it:

“He said to me ‘do you realise what you’ve written, it's marvelous. I can see that being in a book, you should get it published’. So this book is dedicated to Bob. I’m very thankful for his support and enthusiasm because he has always supported me.”

‘Little Mouse’ is Nancy’s sixth book to be published, having spent her entire life with a passion for writing.

She explains: “I've always wanted to write. Even when I was a little girl I was always good at writing, but then life got in the way. It was when we were living in Dartmoor, I was out walking the dogs one day when it came to me that I could write spooky books for children, set in Dartmoor. 

“That’s how my first book ‘Terror at Ullick Farm’ came about and ‘Meg’s Secret’. Then we moved to Trinidad where I wrote ‘Island of Spirits’ and ‘Gold Fever’ was about Australia where we had lived for 12 years. But then my husband was taken very sick and he died and I haven’t done much writing at all since then.

“Little Mouse is the first book I’ve written since my husband died. He had been the one to encourage me to write but it's amazing how different people can bring out different things in a person. With Bob, it was just pure coincidence that he sent me that email with that little mouse at the end and from there it wrote itself. It’s been so fun writing this book. It's just one of those things that happens in life, you don’t plan it but it happens.”

Little Mouse follows the story of a mouse that manages to escape from his house to find a new home in the outside world; a lovely bedtime story for young children.

You can find all of Nancy's books available to purchase on Amazon.

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