30 April 2015

Please note: this news article is in our archive. Articles were correct at time of publication, but should not be relied on for accuracy after the passage of time.

A casual enquiry at the library’s visitor information desk nine years ago culminated in a glass of Champagne at the High Street Book shop today, when Simon Kerr and John Pye toasted the latest work by Australian author Liz Byrski.

Liz first came to Simon’s attention in 2006 when someone asked him if he had heard of an earlier book she had written called The Gang of Four, which was a novel featuring “an East Grinstead tea shop”.

Simon contacted Liz via her publishers to find out more, and discovered she was not only a local girl, but that the cafe she had written about was actually John Pye’s Book Shop.

So when Liz wanted to research her latest book, which tells the story of the nurses who cared for McIndoe’s Guinea Pigs, she turned to Simon for help and he was able to introduce her to many people who contributed to In Love and War: Nursing Heroes, her account of the women who cared for McIndoe’s patients.

“I had very much hoped to be with Liz when it was eventually published in Fremantle yesterday, but it didn’t work out,” said Simon. “So instead John and I are raising a glass to her success here in the Book Shop where our association began.”

“This book has been six years in preparation so I am delighted it has finally been published – and very touched that I am included, with town historian Michael Leppard and Bob Marchant, the secretary of the Guinea Pig Club, in the acknowledgements.

* In Love and War: Nursing Heroes by Liz Byrski is published by Fremantle Press, and is available in the UK on Kindle.

Back where it all began – John Pye and Simon Kerr toast Liz © East Grinstead Online