A WELL-travelled woman has secured a spot in a national travel book after putting her experiences into words.
Rosemary Fretwell, of Malvern Wells, entered into a competition to have her work published in ‘To Oldly Go’ – a selection of short travel stories published by Bradt Travel Guides.
The 70-year-old wrote about her walk to Cape Wrath, the far north-west point of mainland Britain, in 2009 and came up trumps as it was selected to feature in the book.
Rosemary told The Observer: “I didn’t have much hope when I submitted it.
“I thought people would be talking about walking through the jungle and remote places in the world and this was only in Britain, but they liked the story.
“I was amazed and absolutely delighted.
“I didn’t think I stood a chance and now looking at the book I am even more amazed because they advertise the competition in America as well, with lots of the stories written by professional writers.
“I just keep thinking to myself ‘they chose my story’.”
The book, which features pieces from people above the age of 60, includes 42 stories and will be on sale from Malvern Book Co-operative store on St Ann’s Road in the coming weeks.
Rosemary’s story is called ‘Plodding to the Far North West’.
“The fact someone has published something I have written is amazing,” she added. “I have written things before but usually just for my own pleasure – I have never tried to get something published or ever entered a writing competition.
“It is the first time anything like this has happened.”
