About Vivien

In Vivien’s own words:

I was born in Co. Down, Northern Ireland, followed six years later by my brother. I have a large, extended, family who are loving, caring and very funny. They relish nothing more than telling stories, mostly funny, some poignant, a few include myths and magic, more than a couple are apocryphal, but all are entertaining. They talk of yesterday and yesteryear; of people and places; of good an evil. I still enjoy the laughter in the retelling. I missed all that when I left Ireland, at the age on eighteen, for further education in England. Liverpool, where I went to college for three years was, and still is, Beatles country. The sense of fun and freedom there made up for all the things I missed: my home, my wee brother, my friends. I left to follow a dream. However, it is only now as I write the stories of the people of Belfast and Co Down, passed down from my cousins, my grandmother and from her grandmother to her, do I understand I am capturing their voices, their challenges, and their joys.

After qualifying as an occupational therapist, those early years were hectic. I married and we settled on the south coast of England. Picturesque Poole was a great alternative to Co. Down, although Northern Ireland had an untamed wildness and Poole had a genteel sophistication. Nevertheless, both were beautiful, with fine sandy beaches around the coastline, and both had woods, forests and landscaped estates for long weekend walks. Both shared a temperate climate, where palm trees grew in the gardens of friends. Inspired, by my surroundings and by a local creative writing group, I tried my hand at short stories. My job as Head Occupational Therapist at Poole General Hospital allowed for time to write in the evenings, and I had modest success: a couple of stories that I recorded for BBC Radio Solent and a short story, Autumn and Winter, which achieved a runner up prize from Competitors Journal and was published by them.

My son was born and I had the pride and joy of being his mother while continuing to work part time. When able, I took on greater professional leadership as District Head Occupational Therapist, responsible for occupational therapy and rehabilitation services in the district of West Dorset. Working full time while completing an MSc in Health Care followed by a PhD in Medicine at the University of Exeter, Devon, left little opportunity for writing. And my next adventure took me into academia, even further away from fiction.

I was appointed Principal Lecturer for a new School of Occupational Therapy at the University of Brighton. When the program had been successfully delivered for five years I was recruited to a professorship at the University of Alberta in Canada.  As I retired, I looked forward once more, to the luxury of sharing my stories.

Ireland has always called me home and I return for part of every year.  I write about girls with erratic starts in life and those with episodes of instability, who overcome the odds to become warrior women. Catfish & Sea Cows is the story of one such woman. Beating the Odds tells the story of the challenges in 1966 Ireland.

I am also interested in the part of Canada where I live, Alberta, and its people. (Map below). I write about immigrants who faced great challenges to come to Canada and a better life. This project is still getting started. A few more details can be found in Heritage Tales.

Photos by Vivien Hollis