BOOK LAUNCH OF ‘MY NAME IS NOT MATILDA’ TO TAKE PLACE AT MEDINA BOOKSHOP NEXT WEEK

Medina Bookshop in Cowes pays host to the book launch of ‘My Name is Not Matilda’, the captivating, touching and beautifully written autobiography of Gurnard resident Miranda Amapola at an event next week. Miranda was brought up in a Norfolk farming family and went to boarding school at the age of seven. Being Head of House was not the envied position one might imagine it to be. She had various dead-end jobs, waitressing, cleaning and housekeeping, and then studied Dress Design. For 3 years in the 1960s, she was a model living in Chelsea. She married and spent two years with her husband building their boat, a trimaran. She had never sailed before but they then set off on an extraordinary voyage across the Atlantic Ocean spending 27 days alone at sea. After four years sailing around the West Indies they returned to England. Later, alas, the marriage collapsed. For the last 40 years, she has lived on the Isle of Wight working as an artist, exhibiting, running workshops and delivering Reminiscence sessions in residential care homes. Miranda writes movingly about her work, her personal life, describing details of her travels, her sailing adventures, her love of nature and of bringing up two boys on her own; then falling in love again. Miranda has written poetry and songs in the past but this is her first book. With candour she shares her thoughts and feelings about events in her life from the post war years to the present day. Everyone is welcome to help celebrate the launch of Miranda’s book next Tuesday (30th April) at 18:00, but if you can’t make it, signed copies will continue to be available from medina Bookshop in Cowes.