John Fitzgerald
Published Books
Lessons Learned?: Reflecting on forty years in childcare. A memoir by John Fitzgerald (OCT 18) BUY ON AMAZON = https://amzn.to/35T4qED
Who are you? Tell us a little about yourself...
My name is John Fitzgerald and nearly aged 80. I was born during the Second World War and, although a small child when it ended, there are a few memories. I left school at 15 without any qualifications but, at 28, went to college to train as a social worker; a sort of late developer and first person in my family to go to college. There, I discovered I was dyslexic, which explains why I had problems with both reading and writing. The college were sympathetic and provided me with extra help to achieve the results I needed. My career covered three distinct periods - a) working as a field worker in a residential therapeutic unit for children who had been abused; b) adoption and fostering and c) head of a charity that investigated the death of children and young people who had suffered severe neglect and or abuse.
What first inspired you to start writing?
Not so much inspired, as fuelled by fear and trepidation. Jane Rowe, who in the 1970s was regarded as a national child-care figure and had produced a series of seminal text-books, suggested I should consider writing a book with two colleagues about the work we did at the therapeutic unit referred to above. I was horrified but eventually was persuaded to try, when Jane said she would act as a mentor and editor. The result was Building New Families through Adoption and Fostering published by Oxford University Press. The experience taught me that using a Dictaphone, (latterly a computer), I could tell a story as long as I had a good editor; a lesson I hung onto throughout my life.
What made you want to work with Rowanvale and be published?
Up to then, I had always been published by a specialist publisher and, after my retirement, I ran a small specialist publishing house. However, by the time I got to thinking about how to publish ‘Lessons Learned?: 40 years in Child Care’ I had closed Cwm Publishing. I decided to look at independent publishing and, after doing my research, decided that Rowanvale a) seemed professional, b) was almost a halfway house between self-publishing and commercial publishing and c) was based in Wales, which coming from a Welsh family and now living in Wales, was very important to me. My reason for writing ‘Lessons Learned?’ was partly because several former colleagues were urging me to do so and, because as time went by, I came around to their way of thinking.
When you're not writing, what are you reading?
Non-Fiction, currently ‘Never Forget Your Name -the children of Auschwitz.’
Which work are you most proud of?
Proud is not a word I use. I grew up in a family that drummed into me that ‘pride comes before a fall’ - a good example of which are our present crop of politicians! I can feel satisfaction sometimes about an event or activity. Here I am going to cheat and give you three examples:
What's your best advice for handling writer's block?
Leave the computer or the pen and do something you love doing that will make you stop thinking about writing. For me it was tinkering with and cruising on my canal boat or just listening to music.
What's one thing you always have with you when writing?
Music playing, specifically Scheherazade by Rimsky – Korsakov, 40’s and 50’s popular music, Mozart, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and any recording by the world’s greatest living harpist, Catrin Finch, to name but a few.
What is the one book you would take with you if you were stuck on a desert island?
The complete works of John Mortimers, Rumpole of the Bailey, to make me laugh.
What is the best part about being an independently published author?
You decide who is your editor and who is going to publish your book.
What's next for you?
I am nearly 80 and as a friend reminded recently, ‘you are running out of road so why not sit back and relax’. However, there is another book I want to write, if I live long enough, based on where I have been focused for the last 20 years; the visual and performing arts in Wales.
Lessons Learned?: Reflecting on forty years in childcare. A memoir by John Fitzgerald (OCT 18) BUY ON AMAZON = https://amzn.to/35T4qED
Who are you? Tell us a little about yourself...
My name is John Fitzgerald and nearly aged 80. I was born during the Second World War and, although a small child when it ended, there are a few memories. I left school at 15 without any qualifications but, at 28, went to college to train as a social worker; a sort of late developer and first person in my family to go to college. There, I discovered I was dyslexic, which explains why I had problems with both reading and writing. The college were sympathetic and provided me with extra help to achieve the results I needed. My career covered three distinct periods - a) working as a field worker in a residential therapeutic unit for children who had been abused; b) adoption and fostering and c) head of a charity that investigated the death of children and young people who had suffered severe neglect and or abuse.
What first inspired you to start writing?
Not so much inspired, as fuelled by fear and trepidation. Jane Rowe, who in the 1970s was regarded as a national child-care figure and had produced a series of seminal text-books, suggested I should consider writing a book with two colleagues about the work we did at the therapeutic unit referred to above. I was horrified but eventually was persuaded to try, when Jane said she would act as a mentor and editor. The result was Building New Families through Adoption and Fostering published by Oxford University Press. The experience taught me that using a Dictaphone, (latterly a computer), I could tell a story as long as I had a good editor; a lesson I hung onto throughout my life.
What made you want to work with Rowanvale and be published?
Up to then, I had always been published by a specialist publisher and, after my retirement, I ran a small specialist publishing house. However, by the time I got to thinking about how to publish ‘Lessons Learned?: 40 years in Child Care’ I had closed Cwm Publishing. I decided to look at independent publishing and, after doing my research, decided that Rowanvale a) seemed professional, b) was almost a halfway house between self-publishing and commercial publishing and c) was based in Wales, which coming from a Welsh family and now living in Wales, was very important to me. My reason for writing ‘Lessons Learned?’ was partly because several former colleagues were urging me to do so and, because as time went by, I came around to their way of thinking.
When you're not writing, what are you reading?
Non-Fiction, currently ‘Never Forget Your Name -the children of Auschwitz.’
Which work are you most proud of?
Proud is not a word I use. I grew up in a family that drummed into me that ‘pride comes before a fall’ - a good example of which are our present crop of politicians! I can feel satisfaction sometimes about an event or activity. Here I am going to cheat and give you three examples:
- The work my team and I did carrying out an inquiry into the death of a child who died of neglect. The published report, ‘Paul - Death Through Neglect’, was the first on this subject for 50 years and was to change the way social services, health, police etc, dealt with cases of neglect
- ‘Brendan’s Story’, which I edited, giving an account of his life struggling with muscular dystrophy and knowing he would die in his early 20s. I met Brendan in a hospital in Adelaide when I was there to assist the board change their focus on the way they deal with young people with physical disabilities. Brendan was understandably an angry young man. In discussion with him and his social worker, I suggested he wrote his story and I would try to find a publisher, which I did - the Children’s Society. Sadly, Brendan died three months before publication. Subsequently, his social worker sent me a letter to be given to me after Brendan’s death. In it, he told me he was at peace and glad he had written the book and hoped it would help both other young people with his condition and health professionals to shift their attitudes over the care of teenagers with muscular dystrophy.
- Starting what is currently the only Harp Summer School here in Wales, from which has grown a Harps in Schools project in our local state secondary school that enables young people to have free harp tuition in school with a starter harp to take home to practice. Playing the harp is very expensive, so much so that it is normally only available to those who have parents who can afford to pay.
What's your best advice for handling writer's block?
Leave the computer or the pen and do something you love doing that will make you stop thinking about writing. For me it was tinkering with and cruising on my canal boat or just listening to music.
What's one thing you always have with you when writing?
Music playing, specifically Scheherazade by Rimsky – Korsakov, 40’s and 50’s popular music, Mozart, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and any recording by the world’s greatest living harpist, Catrin Finch, to name but a few.
What is the one book you would take with you if you were stuck on a desert island?
The complete works of John Mortimers, Rumpole of the Bailey, to make me laugh.
What is the best part about being an independently published author?
You decide who is your editor and who is going to publish your book.
What's next for you?
I am nearly 80 and as a friend reminded recently, ‘you are running out of road so why not sit back and relax’. However, there is another book I want to write, if I live long enough, based on where I have been focused for the last 20 years; the visual and performing arts in Wales.
