'I always had writing in me'

I was sitting with Gillian Thornton in her lounge, on a showery Saturday afternoon in April. I had come to talk to her about her life as a writer and her involvement with the Verulam Writers' Circle.

She remembers her first experience of writing when she was about eight years old when she wrote and illustrated a story about a horse.

'I always had writing in me, even then,' she says.

She left school with A-levels in French, English and Italian and even at that stage she knew she wanted to write articles for magazines. There was very little training for journalists in those days except by working on the staff of a local newspaper so instead of becoming a writer, she trained as a bi-lingual secretary. While she was looking for an evening class to improve her Italian she spotted a course for 'Writing for Pleasure and Profit' and thought this might help her so she went along and met Frank Fernyhough, who was the tutor. The first assignment the class was given was to list ten topics they thought they might be able to write about.

She was daunted by the older and more experienced people there but she returned because she wanted to find out what everyone else had put on their lists. The follow-up task was to write about the topic they thought they could do best and Gillian wrote about being a bilingual secretary. At the next class Frank Fernyhough told the class that 'somebody here has a potential sale.' It was Gillian's article and it was her first sale for the magnificent sum of £15.00.

She went on to write for the RSPCA's children's magazine at £5.00 a piece, then Herts. Countryside and while still in her early twenties, very proudly, an article about abandoned animals in Britain, for Good Housekeeping.

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Her second attempt at fiction, after her childhood story, was some short stories for Pony Magazine, one of which was published in their 1977 annual. She has written one book, 'Successful Article Writing' published by Writers' News in 1995.

'I'm too impatient to write books,' she told me, land I have no wish to write any more fiction. I'm very happy writing features and very much enjoy my current balance of life and work.'

Indeed, as you talk to her, her enthusiasm bubbles over. She loves meeting people, talking to them and finding out what they do and think.

'All you need is a notebook, a pencil and a camera,' she says, 'and with a commission behind you can go behind the scenes anywhere. I get to places where the public can't go.'

In 1989 Writers' News started and she wrote their Market Index double page spread in which a selection of magazines on one topic is reviewed each month. She has since made a name for herself as a travel writer and is a member of the Guild of Travel Writers. She has written 65 articles over seven years for Living France. She has also written for Air-Tours on-line magazine and a few travel features for My Weekly. When her two children were younger she wrote for Parenting Magazine and other family publications.

'I love what I do,' she says, 'because I'm curious about real life, new people and places.'

As a member of the Institute of Journalists, she has been behind the scenes at the Tower of London with the Chief Yeoman Warder. She has interviewed Roger Moore, Michael Caine, Terry Wogan, Zandra Rhodes and Alan Titchmarsh besides other non-celebrity people who have done amazing things 'like starting an animal sanctuary on a shoestring in their back garden.' She has written more than 400 general feature articles for My Weekly and 300 plus for Annabel. She has written about dogs, cats and horses; about the National Trust and the costume department at the Globe theatre. She even writes for Classic Stitches.

'But I can't even sew a button on,' she protested.

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'That doesn't matter,' said the editor, 'talk to the people who can.'

'If you've got to work,' says Gillian, 'why not do something you enjoy? I can't think of anything else I could have done that I'd have enjoyed any more. It's not the Nobel prize for Literature, not great journalism, not cutting edge, investigative reporting. It's entertainment writing and why not? Magazines are there to entertain people. I'd much rather do that than be in a war zone in a flak jacket with a bullet in my brain.'

She was only 22 when she joined the Verulam Writers' Circle. At that time the meetings were held in the Town Hall council chamber. There were sometimes more than fifty people at a meeting. Students at Frank's writing classes were expected to attend the Circle, which was how Gillian first became involved with it. Later the circle moved to Loreto College when the membership dropped because of poor facilities and the problems imposed by the St Albans one-way traffic system. It moved to St Michael's about fifteen years ago. It was about the same time as this move that Frank Fernyhough asked Gillian to take over as President. Frank died in 1994.

She thinks the circle has changed direction over the last few years, with fiction writers predominating. She would like to see more non-fiction writers in the circle to provide a better balance of experience and skills. She comes to meetings at which there is a speaker because she is still open to picking up tips from other people and 'you can always learn something new.'

'I rarely go to workshops,' she says. 'It's too much like work. I work six days a week and am at my desk by eight o'clock every the morning.'

I asked if she were not president, would she still be a member.

'Oh, yes,' she says. 'It's a great organisation. It's been wonderful to me. Frank was my mentor and other people have given me a lot of good advice. I will always support members and pass on useful information.'

The afternoon had passed quickly. We'd had a cup of tea and admired the garden from inside because of the showers. I was given a tour of her tidy study. Gillian is clearly a person at ease with herself, who enjoys her writing which occupies her twenty-four hours a day. She never takes time off. Whatever she does she's thinking 'what sort of article can I get out of this?'

Clearly she still has plenty more writing in her and has already fulfilled her childhood ambition.

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