#RealPeople #RealLives – Francis

This life story has been sent into us by Francis (80), an accomplished author who lives in one of our retirement living schemes in Eastbourne. He has been living there, with his wife, for seven years.

“I was born in Seaford, Sussex, but as my father died during the war and my mother could not support us alone, I lived-out the war years in Manchester with my Aunt and Uncle before returning to Seaford in 1950.

I had several jobs until I finally settled on the job of a plasterer for the rest of my working life and did a little building work in my later years.

I had a good reputation and can still see examples of my work as I travel around the district.

During two recession’s I worked in Belgium. I registered there and built a home, but due to their tax laws I lost my home in Seaford and I ended up in rented accommodation.

My wife and I fostered children for about ten years and I wish we had done it for longer.

When we stopped fostering our money situation became critical and we found accommodation with Stonewater.
I am Chairman of the committee of the Lakeside Court Events Club; and we are busy organising activities and events to bring the community together. I had always wanted to write but never had the time when working and it was the advent of the computer which released my writing skills. I have finished five books but only published two at present. The first is entitled ‘The Survivalists’ and is about an ecological disaster which happened
twice in Earth’s history and killed off most of the world’s population, and will certainly happen again in the future (frightening isn’t it?). My second book is entitled ‘The Magical Pendant of Perdania’ – pen name
Frances Jaycee. This book is about a young girl who discovers she can practise magic and has to travel to a world far away to do battle with an evil wizard.*

I will soon publish another book about Cyborgs as some of the recent advances in science are amazing, and there seems to be a great interest in this. I have also written approximately 120 short stories.

I still write every day and have several stories half finished. I am going to create a web page in the near future to publicise my work.

I also featured in a book with some ten other authors entitled ‘We Aren’t Dead Yet Writers’, but unfortunately that doesn’t hold true and some have since passed away.

I belong to a writing group, ‘The Anderida Writers’ and run another group in Eastbourne town called ‘The Scribe Tribe’ for aspiring writers.”

*Both books are available on Amazon either as an eBook or printed.