by David Pagendam (Illustrator), Gladys Pagendam (Author)

When a hip 17 year old leaves Liverpool at the height of Beatlemania to enter an Irish convent, little did she know that her life as a nun would include a unique relationship with Beatle George Harrison. Nan is a grandmother who once was this nun. As she nears death, her three grown-up granddaughters become curious about her life. Could her far-fetched tales really be true? Compline weaves together the story of the young nun in the 1960s with that of three generations of 21st-century women - their lives, their loves, their joys and sorrows. Compline dissolves boundaries of genre, time and place, between the real and the imagined. It is written to appeal to all ages. Nan's story emerges from diaries, letters, story-telling, memories, and poems. It is a blend of autobiography and fiction, but you never know which is which. Reviewers have commented that when they put Compline down they were still mulling it over afterwards. Others have said it made them laugh, it made them cry, but most of all, it entertained them.

Author Biography

I was born in 1946 in Liverpool, England, one of six siblings. I began to write seriously in 1985, when I moved from England to Australia with my husband and two small children. Jacaranda Wiley published my first novel soon afterwards - Sit Beside the Gnomon, a time travel adventure for 9-10 year olds. My latest adult novel, Compline (2012), is published by Amazon.com Kindle Books. Life has given me two unusual experiences. Firstly I grew up as a teenager in Liverpool when The Beatles were rising to fame. Then I left Beatlemania behind to become a nun in Ireland, France, Belgium and England. I combined these two experiences in Compline, a book about a nun and Beatle George Harrison. Over the years I have developed my writing skills both by attending courses and by continuously practising my craft. More recently I was awarded a degree from Southern Cross University where I undertook two majors in creative writing. This gave me new ways of thinking about writing and enormous confidence, for I had matched myself against other excellent writers. Furthermore my work had been critiqued, and when I received my degree I knew I could hold my own among my peers. I immediately set to work to write Compline, my magnum opus. Other children's novels I have written are: Frizzy's Rainbow Maggo Ribbo B Bopp Goes Bim Bam Boom I also like to write picture books, short stories for adults, visual poetry, free verse stories, articles for newsletters and magazines.

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