Anni Swinburn

Anni was born in Sheffield, and lived in Pitsmoor and Arbourthorne before moving at the age of four into a new council maisonette on Blackstock Road. She left Gleadless Valley Secondary Modern school on her fifteenth birthday with no qualifications and worked as a telephonist for the General Post office, as an assistant with the YHA and then trained as nursery nurse. She worked as a nanny in Rome then for a small Sheffield-based charity, Halfway Home, before travelling overland to Asia and doing voluntary work in Kolkata, then on to Nepal, Burma and Thailand. Back in Sheffield she started a family and at Hurlfield Adult Education Centre she completed several GCSE exams and had a wonderful and encouraging English tutor: Sheffield Author, Berlie Doherty. After juggling temporary jobs and childcare she did a BA at Hallam University, then worked in Rotherham and Sheffield as a family social worker. Throughout all this time, she wrote short stories, pieces for theatre and completed the part-time MA in Creative Writing at SHU in early 2000.

Mother House is a hybrid; a travelogue memoir with an exciting novel weaving throughout. A story of adventure, obsession, mental illness, trauma and recovery but above all it is about love in its many forms. It should appeal to readers who like fiction set in foreign lands from a feminist perspective touching on political, religious and family dynamics.
In 1978, Marianne should be preparing for her wedding but instead she flees her home city of Sheffield, buys a one-way ticket on a budget bus to India and sets off on the hippy trail. On a beach in Kerala, she witnesses a tragedy and forms a bond with a charismatic fellow traveller. They meet up later in Sri Lanka where she becomes captivated by him and begins to find the emotional and sexual connection she has been looking for. Will this relationship survive?
In 1997, Sister Marie-Agnes prepares to leave the convent where she has lived for almost two decades. She arrived there with a locked truck and no memory of her past. As she delves into the trunk can she come to terms with what she finds?