Verona Bass

Books

Morning of my Life, 2017
A Light in the Distance, 2018
A Timeless Presence,2020 

I’ve always been a wordsmith, whether recognised or not. It started with first seeing my name in print when I was about nine, a heady moment. After that little essay my writing manifested itself in the required compositions for school, Teachers’ Training College and Anglia Ruskin University but never into anything ready to publish. After I’d turned 75 a trilogy of pamphlets was self-published between 2017 and 2020 about my early years growing up on farms in South Africa.

I kept journals, wrote hundreds of descriptive letters to my parents and friends. Some of my articles appeared in small magazines especially ones associated with organisations like World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. For many years being an adventurer was my greatest aim, and part of that was having a family. I have a son and a daughter. I have now lived in England for over fifty years.  I came to live in Bath in 1995. 

Visits to art galleries and museums were interspersed with being a volunteer on growing projects. I tended trees, stacked wood, helped with vegetable growing. I learned to value regeneration of orchards, and for a while turned bee-keeper. At the same time I’ve always been associated with a literary circle of one sort of another. I enjoy my book groups, I’m challenged by my writing circles, and I’ve been creative as a storyteller in Bath pubs. 

I admire people who deliver the spoken word. My experience of this form was expanded by attending festivals like Beyond the Border Storytelling, and the Green Gathering, plus local poetry reading circles. Learning how to deliver a story on Zoom has been one of my lesser accomplishments, more successful in the intention to continue participating than the outcome. Making eye contact and being with a live audience is a vital experience. 

I’ve met with the Bath Writers and Artists for several years. The inspiration and friendships provide me with a bedrock of belonging. Our various projects continue to stimulate, especially The Wasteland Revisited. 

VERONA WRITES…..