About Joy

Joy Lennick was separated from her parents by the onset of World War II with her two brothers. Evacuated to live with a kind aunt on a mountain (Hare) in Wales, what to do? She sought solace through reading and joined the local (Merthyr Tydfil) library. Very soon, she became totally besotted with words. Via candlelight, The Bros. Grimm attempted to frighten her from her nightie and she still recalls a few nightmares…but Hans Christian Anderson, Charles Dickens, et al soon introduced her to the sheer variety and magic of stories. She was hooked. (An account of her life during the war years can be found in her delightful memoir ‘My Gentle War’ which is spliced with excerpts from her father’s war diary.)

Pitman’s College learning shorthand and typing. An office-based career followed for several years, her favourite job working as secretary to Kaye & Ward, a well-established publishers in the City of London.

Love came knocking…and she was married in 1953 to Eric Sydney Lennick, a fascinating, multi-faceted character if ever there was one… ‘Dire circumstances in the country’ led them to Canada, where they lived and worked for eighteen, enjoyable, months. Returning -‘homesick’ – to the UK, they settled down and had three, beloved, sons.

Two business ventures followed, as shop-keepers and hoteliers. And, all the while, Joy read and ‘scribbled.’ Lame short stories and iffy poems led to slightly better ones…and Kogan Page Ltd., of London commissioned her to write a book about hotel life! Running Your Own Small Hotel (two reprints) and she was off. Next came the factual Jobs in Baking and Confectionery, and the updating of two of their own books.

‘Life’ again took over – while Joy ran a poetry group and had several articles and poems published in various anthologies. Too quickly, retirement loomed and they decided to spend another chapter in Spain. Joy then joined the Torrevieja writing group and won the first International Short Story Competition run by the Ayuntamiento (Town Hall) with her short story Worth Its Salt. The couple joined the U3A group and Joy became a group leader for creative writing, soon after linking up with the writing group WordPlay, now known as Writers’ Ink. (There is, shortly, to be an online ‘off-shoot called the Ink Spot Newsletter.)

Over the past few years, Joy has written: Hurricane Halsey, a true sea adventure; adapted From the Prairie to Passchendaele, the true biography of a brave young man who lived the hard life of a farmer and faced the horrors of World War 1. She then edited the hand-written memoir of her husband Eric S. Lennick: A Life Worth Living, covering his years in the East End of London during the blitz, also the time spent in Bury St Edmunds and his conscription into the Army after the war.

A novel came next: The Catalyst. Based on the horrendous bombing of a London train by a terrorist in 2005. It is a true story, while the characters are fictitious.

Joy with husband Eric, has recently published a slim volume of humorous poems and jokes, which they hope will ‘keep the doctor away!’ She then collaborated with writer friend, Jean Wilson, and they produced a book of varied short stories called Where Angels and Devils Tread. This busy writer has also had many short stories included in various anthologies and won a few prizes for her poetry. She is at present working on a new novel: The Highs and Lows of Leticia Dombrowski.

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