Ever since Patricia Veryan was a little girl, she has loved books. While growing up in a suburb of London, she and her best friend would to to the library every Saturday afternoon. A very contented Patricia would return home with an armload of books.
At the age of six, Patricia had already begun composing stories. By the age of eight, she was attempting poetry which was then read to the school at a few assemblies.
Formal schooling ended at the age of 14, and Patricia was out on her quest for The Great Career. Her first job in London's commercial district brought home a grand total of $2 a week, which at the time, Patricia was quite proud of. Her mum, however, had different ideas. She did not like the fact that Patricia was printing the bags for loose tea! Next thing Patricia knew, she was enrolled in business college!
After completing the one year secretarial course, Patricia had many jobs. The war entered the picture, and her jobs became very interesting. Some of them included working in the London offices of Columbia Pictures, working for a vast military canteen service, and for U.S. Army Headquarters.
Talking about working during the war years brings back many memories for Patricia. She remembers sometimes going into the air raid shelters at seven in the evening when the sirens wailed, and leaving before the All Clear sounded at about the same time in the morning. One morning after a very noisy night, four complete streets were gone, including the home of a friend.
During the time when she worked with U.S. Army, Patricia was assistant secretary to David Niven, the late movie actor. He was a Lt. Colonel at the time. Patricia says working with Lt. Col. Niven was a great pleasure and that he was very good natured and kind to everyone. Of course, she doesn't complain about the kiss he gave her on the forehead every morning!
After the war, Patricia came to the States to join relations in New York. Later, she married a Californian she'd met while with the ocupation forces in Frankfurt. Busy with the tasks of a wife and mother of two, she never found time to write.
During these busy years, she did manage to find the time to submit a few scripts for television. She found an agent and received some letters from story editors, but she never sold a thing. Then, with her husband's failing health, she took a job at the University of California. In 1977, a friend convinced Patricia to let her read some of her work. The friend urged Patricia to try again. Patricia didn't need much urging - she had always longed to write a book, so she gave it a try.
Well, as they say, the rest is history. Patricia still continues to write the kind of books that bring so much happiness to us, her fans. She says she loves the period that she writes about, with all of its "grace, beauty, gentleness, honor, and incredible savagery". Patricia says she writes mainly to entertain, not to educate: "To hope that some tired or dispirited person may be enabled to escape the workday world for an hour or so and share the laughter and love, tears and adventures of the people who populate my little eighteenth and nineteenth century worlds. If, along the way, I can shed a furtive beam of light on other aspects of those times, without becoming too somber - why, so much the better!"