Maggie Ballinger

Maggie was born in Crewe in 1951, grew up in South London and, via Norfolk and Leeds, finally discovered, (in 1979), that her true home was Sheffield. From then, until retiring in 2004, she worked in almost all the city’s hospitals, ending up as General Manager of the Jessop Hospital for Women. Both her daughters, and all four of her young grandchildren, were born – and still live − in Sheffield. The enormous privilege of childcare is therefore a regular feature of her weekly agenda.
After several post-retirement years spent renovating the house in Nether Green, which she shares with her husband, Maggie’s attention turned back to her lifelong passion for writing.
She has completed several novels, but has never pursued the possibility of publishing any of them. Please follow the above link to Maggie's blog of humorous verses.

Remaining items on her bucket list include learning how to tap dance, and to play the violin, not necessarily with a view to doing both at the same time. (Though we do so look forward to seeing that, Maggie!)

In 2012, principally to protect the idea, she self-published Baa Baa Pink Sheep. The penning and illustrating of this was prompted by her first granddaughter who, then aged two,demanded differently coloured sheep asking questions about something other than “boring wool”.

Also in 2012, work began on Britannia’s Glory − a Maritime Story. This followed her entry into the Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society’s inaugural limerick competition, and was originally intended as a short fund-raiser pamphlet in humorous verse. A fascination for the subject matter quickly took hold, and the aim then became the production of the most comprehensive maritime history ever.

Most of the thousand participants who've turned up for the first round of the knockout quiz series "Eliminate" have their hearts set on winning the half million pound prize. Accidental contestant Dotty isn't one of them. She simply wants to be at home, mourning her dead husband and preparing for the birth of their baby.
Misogynistic TV producer Daniel Hamer is not enthused about presiding over a show that is outdated and doomed to failure. But he has a few plans to liven things up a bit, and at least he feels more or less in control - until, that is, he spots a heavily pregnant woman in the crowd. She represents all his worst nightmares and cannot possibly be allowed to progress into further rounds.
Both he and Dotty are therefore intent on plotting her early exit. How will things pan out in the coming weeks? And who will win the ultimate prize?

In 1936, the Duke of York unexpectedly became King George VI, and his ten-year-old daughter, Princess Elizabeth, became heir presumptive. However, she was never heir apparent, because a male sibling would automatically assume her place in the line of succession. So what would have happened upon the late arrival of a baby brother for the grown-up Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret? After King George VI’s death in 1952, the United Kingdom’s next sovereign would have been a very young boy, and one in need of a regent.
This novel tells seeks to tell that "what if" story. How would the House of Windsor have worked out? .

The Wish Gift centres on one woman's struggle to maintain as normal an existence as possible, in the face of increasingly extraordinary events and the discovery of a range of secret powers. There is a three-decades old mystery of a missing child, a quest to find a thirty-something person with no clues as to their whereabouts, the yearning for kin, a miraculous birth, and several accidental wrongs to be rectified - plus a generous helping of conventional (and unconventional) romance.