Though outwardly normal, the strangeness of Nina Green's early life was to prove a breeding ground for a fertile and rich imagination.
From the time she could first hold a pencil, Nina was writing stories and drawing matchstick pictures to illustrate them.
A year or two later her teacher would read them out to her classmates. Often she would use the strange dreams that haunted her in the
dark of night as the basis for these stories.
The love of reading and writing never left Nina, though it is a wonder she survived childhood! She recalls Saturday mornings spent
shopping for her mother and an elderly neighbour - and regularly crossing a main Manchester road with her nose still buried in an
open book!
Throughout childhood she experienced strange 'waking dreams' vivid nightmares and eerie coincidences. In adulthood this awareness of
things not easily explained is harnessed to fuel ghostly plots and tales of mystery and intrigue.
A love of learning has also stayed with her, so that each book is seen as an opportunity to learn something new, be it about Roman
history, astronomy - or warrior monks and alchemy as in the case of Immortal Dust! However Nina's maxim is 'never be preachy or try to
show off what you know'. She claims "There are always lots of people out there who know a lot more than you do!" - and that "Readers
buy fiction for many good reasons, but being bored by bone-dry facts and the author's ego is not generally amongst them!"
Nina sees her 'mission' as simply 'to tell a good tale' and connect with her readers, believing that many share her interest in the
mysteries of life and may even have had similar experiences.
For many years the work of raising a family and running a business demanded exclusive commitment. One of the family forbears is
William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, and a branch of Nina's family bearing the Penn name lived in a large house overlooking Windermere.
Whilst finishing a Philosophy degree course at Lancaster University, she was fortunate enough to be offered a gypsy caravan for rent in
the lovely Rusland valley not far from Windermere. Over the following five years she stayed there for weeks at a time. During this time,
through the insight of one her tutors, she began writing again.
For the past one and half decades she has lived in a cottage tucked under the fells of Eskdale. The brooding and at times eerie
atmosphere - especially around the sombre and history-soaked fells surrounding Hardknott - nourishes Nina's spooky creative talent.
As a child there was a taken-for-granted affinity with the Romans. In later life a vision - seen in the dressing table mirror just
prior to falling asleep - inspired a book written from the soul. Research identified the place glimpsed in the misty depths of the
mirror as Hardknott Roman Fort in Eskdale. An obsession with the place followed, and an unshakeable belief that Hardknott is her
'spiritual home'. Yet to this day the manuscript lies on a shelf in her study, unfinished and gathering dust. Perhaps the book - or
rather its Roman Commander - lies a tad too close to this author's heart.
But she may yet pick it up again - if her readers insist!
