A former deputy head turned author has published a short story in an anthology in aid of the War Child charity.

Caroline Cannons, of Kingsdown, donated the story Bluebell Memories, which features in the anthology Joe Stepped off the Train and Other Stories.

Each story has the theme of war and how it affects people and changes lives.

She said: “A call came through from Steven Kay for the War Child charity. I felt it was really important and wondered ‘what can I do? I can donate money but that’s not enough’.

“I asked other local writers if they would consider donating a story to the anthology.”

Her piece is an adaptation of a story she had written before about a visit to the Sidney Cooper Gallery in Canterbury’s High Street and focuses on the children killed during the First World War bombing of Tontine Street in Folkestone.

“It made me cry as I wrote it. It is a tribute to a boy’s gentleness as he approaches death” - Caroline Cannons, writer

“I came away and wrote a story and then I adapted it for the anthology,” she said. “It made me cry as I wrote it. It is a tribute to a boy’s gentleness as he approaches death.”

Writing is a pursuit Caroline has taken up with relish since retiring from Walmer Science College.

She said: “I’d always said, when I went into teaching, that I would put my heart and soul into my job.”

And she did. As a teacher of drama and French, she got dance put on the curriculum at St Edmund’s Catholic School in Dover.

She added: “I always planned to retire when I was 55, and that year the opportunity came up for me to take early retirement.”

Then, through a friend, she enrolled on a writing course at Canterbury Christ Church University, where she helped set up a writing group, The Canterbury Yarners. The group has published anthologies and are reading and acting their work at festivals this summer.

Caroline takes delight in seeing the effect her writing has on people. When she was doing supply work at Astor College in Dover, she wrote a story about the school during World Book Day.

“You could see their eyes light up when they heard about their school in a story,” she said.

Being a prolific writer, Caroline does not know how many stories she has had published, but she has one rule: not to read them once they are published, only when she gets the final proof.

Joe Stepped off the Train and Other Stories was published on April 4. All authors’ royalties go to the War Child charity.

It can be ordered via Amazon and other retailers.

Caroline Cannons will be reading one of her stories, Cyril’s Waterloo, at Canterbury’s Wise Words Festival on the evening of Wednesday, May 4.

At the Whitlit festival in Whitstable, she will be reading an abridged version of her Getting Over You, published in the Stories Are Forever anthology.
It happens on Saturday, May 14 at 6.30pm.