Memoirs of a WAAF – Concept to exciting publication!

As the Tester family grew, they had many get-togethers with family and friends at their home in East Grinstead.  However, like many others who lived through world war 2, Mum (Daphne Tester – her married name), rarely spoke about her time in the WAAF or her WAAF diaries.  So we barely knew anything about them, let alone that she still had them. So, what happened next? 

Downsizing!

In 2008 the difficult, and very emotional decision was made to downsize Mum and Dad’s home of 40 years.

When they first moved there in 1960 (I was 6 months old evidently!)) it was a 3-bed new build. As their family grew and they extended it to incorporate Dad’s father (can’t remember when!), it grew considerably.

Then, in later life, as grandad passed away and us two kids moved out and got married, the house and large garden had become too big and almost a burden for the two of them. Mum and Dad by now were finding it hard work to manage. Dad had always enjoyed pottering about, planting seeds and growing vegetables, but this became increasingly difficult as he became less mobile. Towards the end of their time there, he hired a someone to mow the lawn, as even that became too much hard work.

Clearout for the move

While clearing the house ready for the move, Mum came across her diaries, which she had more or less forgotten she still had. She called me to ask what to do with them. It was a ‘by the way’ type of conversation. “Oh, I’ve found my old WAAF diaries.” she said, ” I’d forgotten about these, but I’m not sure what to do with them. What do you think? Shall I just throw them out?”. My immediate response was “Oh no, don’t do that. Keep hold of them and I’ll have a look next time we come over”. When she showed them to me, I was thrilled to see them, but so thankful that she hadn’t disposed of them, which could easily have happened.

Revealed!

The diaries, all 5 of them, together with lots of notes and sketches (Mum was an artist), tucked away in a box, were lovely – all leather-bound, and the tiniest handwriting! Some of it was so faint it was no longer legible.

So, Mum suggested I could type them up into a document to give to the family. So, that’s what we agreed on. It was only when I looked at them more closely, and started working on them, that I realised how precious, important and interesting this ‘find’ was.  

Realisation!

I was running my own secretarial/marketing business at the time, so I thought it would be a good idea to type up as much information as possible, and take it from there. However, having made a start on typing it up, it became clear to me how interesting it all was, and it was then that the idea came to mind to create a book.   

Research

I often attended networking and business meetings, and it was at one of these that I met someone who took an interest in what I was doing, and suggested he could help me publish the book, including creating an ISBN, which I would need to create a paperback book. This excited me hugely, and so the concept of Memoirs of a WAAF was born. Once I had the diaries and started work on them, Mum was quite happy to leave it all entirely up to me, as I was confident that the challenge was doable. 

So, that’s how it all started!

The work

The road ahead was long – the book took over 2 years to produce, with lots of typing, research and collating pictures, and part the way through I stalled and nearly gave up working on it. However, with encouragement from my dear, supportive husband Phil, I got going again, finally finishing and publishing Memoirs of a WAAF in 2015? When I opened the first delivery of books, I cried! I was so proud of myself, as were the whole family. I had done it!

What next? Self-publish?

As I had gone down the route of self-publication, it was up to me to promote and market the book, so that’s exactly what we did. So now, it was time to promote it. 

Why didn’t I go to a publisher you may ask? Well my research told me that publishers tend to be only interested if you have more than one book to publish and, you lose all rights to your book if someone else publishes it, with very little profit left for you. It was a steep learning curve but enjoyable. 

We took the book to lots of independent book shops (some agreed to sell them, some didn’t) as well as Waterstones in East Grinstead, where Mum and I even did a book signing. I sold lots at Uckfield late night shopping. 

In the end I had a total of 300 books printed, and we sold the lot! Not quite up to J K Rowling standard, but never mind! You’ve got to start somewhere! 

So to read the final outcome, see my blog article.