Julie Summers

Julie spoke to us in June 2016 on the subject "Playing with Words".  She is passionate about writing and gave up her job in the art world to devote her time to her passion in 2004.  She loves researching her books, especially when that research  involves meeting people and talking to them about their lives. 

Julie is the author of eleven books, many of them dealing with the Second World War. She told us that it is not war that interests her, but the way people coped.  In extreme situations such as war or mountaineering (she was a niece of Sandy Irving who perished with Mallory on Mount Everest in 1924)  ordinary people find extraordinary strength and courage, and that is what she enjoys learning about.

Her book JAMBUSTERS  was later adapted for television and became an extremely successful serial on ITV.  She took us behind the scenes of her writing and explained how her work in archives and with oral history is woven into a narrative that aims to tell the stories of ordinary men and women in extraordinary times.

Julie describes herself as a biographer and historian but says the most important thing for her is to be a story teller.  Certainly she told us some amazing stories and kept her audience spellbound.