Pauline Barclay : The Hippie Shake with Julia Ibbotson

As my latest book, Storm Clouds Gathering is set in 1965 I thought it would be great fun to take a peek at that amazing era. This week Author, Julia Ibbotson, joins The Hippie Shake and shares some of the memories and pics that represent 1965 for her and are also the inspiration for her latest book, Drumbeats and the relevance they have to this new novel.

(1965

Ghana

airport) September 1965, and my first time on an aeroplane! 18 years old, finished my A levels, left school, and flown to Accra, Ghana, West Africa, for my gap year before heading off to university. Doing voluntary work teaching and nursing in the bush. Look at that lovely 1960s VW Beetle!

(1965 Ghana) in the tiny village of Kakomdo, teaching and nursing. Catch that 1960s gingham shift dress with the white lace jabot! What WAS I thinking? Don't remember being THAT prim - probably for the camera!

(1965 Ghana apartment overlooking the African bush) I look pensive - probably thinking of my love back in the UK, missing him, the man I married 3 years later and divorced 21 years later! My first real "in love" passion, well, apart from Andy. ....! The backdrop to my new book set in mid-1960s Ghana.

A little about Julia…

Julia Ibbotson is the award-winning author of The Old Rectory: Escape to a Country Kitchen, first published to acclaim in the USA and now re-launched with a brand-new cover by her new English publisher in the

. Julia has been writing creatively all her life (unpublished!) but her day jobs to pay the mortgage have been as a school teacher and latterly a university academic, gaining her PhD at the age of 57. She delights in being a wife and mother to four, with four little grandchildren. She loves reading, gardening, growing food, cooking for family and friends and country life. Having published many academic texts and papers, she came late to actually publishing her creative writing, at the age of 60 plus, when she was persuaded to write the story of the renovation of her Victorian rectory in The Old Rectory. She has combined memoir, history, research, story and recipes in this first published book, which has won a number of international book festivals in the biography category, gained 5 star reviews on Amazon, and has been widely featured (along with her house) in the media. She has begun to delve into the world of blogging, facebook and now has her own website at www.juliaibbotson.com at which she also posts blogs regularly, about writing, life and her passions. Her new project is a trilogy of novels following the life story of a new character, Jess, through from fleeing to West Africa as a volunteer teacher/nurse in the 1960s to the millennium. The first of the series, Drumbeats, is due to be published later this year. You can find out more on her website and on her author page on Amazon. Her global internet book tours start soon!

Julia’s latest publication.