Former Portsmouth library worker launches personal debut novel tackling mother-and-baby homes of the 1960s

FOR more than three decades, Cheryl Missing has helped run libraries across the city – now they are stocking her debut novel.
By Richard Lemmer
Published 19th Jan 2021, 16:07 BST
Veteran Portsmouth library service worker, Cheryl Missing, has fulfilled a life-long ambition by writing a personal novel. Picture: Habibur RahmanVeteran Portsmouth library service worker, Cheryl Missing, has fulfilled a life-long ambition by writing a personal novel. Picture: Habibur Rahman
Veteran Portsmouth library service worker, Cheryl Missing, has fulfilled a life-long ambition by writing a personal novel. Picture: Habibur Rahman

The 69-year-old retired from the Portsmouth library service, where she helped run centres in Portsea and Paulsgrove, in 2009, allowing her to undertake her life-long ambition of writing a book.

More than a decade later, Cheryl is thrilled that her novel Oh Carole!, a family saga set in 1960s Portsmouth, is now available to buy online and to hire from libraries across the city.

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The novel follows a group of teenage girls as they are forced to confront the era’s attitudes to sex, motherhood, and adoption.

Cheryl Missing's book, available to buy online and to check-out in libraries across the city. Picture: Habibur RahmanCheryl Missing's book, available to buy online and to check-out in libraries across the city. Picture: Habibur Rahman
Cheryl Missing's book, available to buy online and to check-out in libraries across the city. Picture: Habibur Rahman
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Drawing on her own experience of being raised by adoptive parents without ever meeting her birth parents, as well as her friend’s experience in a mother-and-baby home, Cheryl describes writing the novel as an extremely emotional endeavour.

She said: ‘My parents who adopted me were wonderful. I was very close to them, and I put a tribute to them in my book.

‘But I think at this point in my life, I would have liked to meet her – my birth mother.

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‘But she died, and I have not been able to find any brothers or sisters.

‘I wouldn’t have been able to meet her when my adoptive mother was alive - it would have upset her too much. So I put myself into the fictional character's position.

‘It was very emotional.’

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Cheryl was encouraged to turn her experiences into a work of fiction after she set up a writer’s group with Portsmouth novelist Julia Bryant, a former nurse who has now written six historical novels set in the city.

Cheryl said: ‘She really inspired me.

'I was going to send the novel out to agents, but I know the market is flooded.

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‘I decided to self-publish because of my age – I didn't want to spend years and years waiting for it to get published.

Oh Carole! is available to buy paperback from Amazon and Amazon Kindle as an e-book, with a second novel on it way.

Encouraging other budding writers, she added: 'I would say to people go for it. I only wish I had started writing it when I was younger.'

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Related topics:PortsmouthPaulsgroveTikTokJapanAmazon