My story so far

SHE left school early with no qualifications and admits that she still finds spelling difficult. But this has not stopped Dee Williams from selling over one million copies of her popular heart-warming sagas or hitting The Times' bestseller list.

She currently has her 15th book out called Love and War. It is a tale of a contented Rotherhithe family, Eileen and Ronald Wells, in 1938 whose lives are settled until war breaks out.

One of their daughters joins the Land Army, another the Royal Air Force and the third works in a factory.

With her family scattered and the war getting worse by the day, Eileen throws herself into the community, always on hand to help friends and neighbours when tragedy strikes, while savouring any rare moments of celebration.

Dee Williams was born and brought up in Rotherhithe in east London where her father worked as a stevedore in Surrey Docks.

"The question I get asked the most when I give talks about my profession is what made you want to write?" she says.

"I have always loved reading and enjoyed writing compositions, as they were called in my day.

I left school at 14 and, having been evacuated many times, missed a lot of schooling. Spelling was my worst subject and if you ever want to be a writer you need to be able to spell.

"I couldn't work in an office when I left school because I wasn't brainy enough. So I became a hairdresser.

"I have always wanted to travel, so I decided to become a hairdresser on a cruise liner but I met my husband Les on a bus at 16 and got married at 20.

"When I had my daughters Julie and Carol, I used to write stories for them.

"I have always read a lot - my family encouraged it.

"I used to even read the squares of newspaper in the toilet as a child, but I never thought about writing.

"Eventually I had all these stories in my head and I wanted to put them down.

"When our daughters had grown up I said to Les that I really wanted to write. He told me to do something about it.

"So I joined Havant District Writers Circle, as we had moved to the area by then.

That was very daunting because all these people were very clever and I used to go in and write short stories and

enter the competitions that the circle ran.

"I never used to win any of the competitions though."

Dee and Les moved to Spain in 1983 because of Les' job.

Without a work permit and with no television, Dee had very little to fill her time. So she started reading.

"People would leave books lying around," recalls Dee. "So I'd devour anything. I read books that I would have never have dreamt of reading."

Inspired, Dee decided to have a go at writing a novel herself.

"I dug into my wartime memories and started writing on a portable typewriter.

"I called the book Carrie of Culver Road and it was based on my grandmother's life.

"I would sit on the patio and type away. I'd send the chapters home to the writing group who really liked them and said I should get it published."

When Dee and Les returned to England in 1989, Dee sent three chapters and a synopsis to Hodder Headline because a member of her writing group told her that they were looking for saga writers.

"They called me and said they liked it and wanted the whole manuscript," she remembers.

"I had done it all on a portable typewriter and I sent it off without making a copy.

"Of course, I know different now. I was very nave then.

"Headline liked the book, but I had to change the story slightly. So they got me an agent and Les bought me a word processor.

"On April 24, 1990 I received a telephone call. It was the publisher. She said 'Dee, you've done it'.

"I was standing there crying and laughing. I just couldn't believe that someone was going to publish my book."

Dee's second book was Polly of Penns Place.

"Small incidents will trigger ideas for books. That one came about because I had an Aunty Polly who I'd never met before, but I knew when she was a child somebody flicked a fishbone in her eye and in my imagination I could see this poor woman's eye.

"I thought how could that poor woman go through life without an eye? It must be awful. So that was how that story came about."

Dee still can't quite believe her success and still gets excited to see her books on the shelf.

"I remember once when we were at Gatwick Airport," says Dee. "I went into WH Smiths and spotted my book on the shelf. But being 'Williams', I was near the floor.

"Les disappeared and came back and said 'you're not on the floor anymore love, you're eye level now, I've moved all the other books out of the way'.

"I write one book a year. I didn't know that I had so many books in me and I never realised that I could learn so much.

"I do have an interest in history and geography. They were my favourite subjects at school - it certainly wasn't spelling," she laughs.

"When I struggle with a book I go and do ironing or weeding the garden and usually the idea will come to me."

Love and War is published by Hodder Headline, priced £18.99.