Jenny Martin witnessed, at close hand, the aftermath of war – mainly through family members’ experiences: three in World War I; five in World War II, one an RAF Bomber Command casualty; and three in the Normandy landings, one being her father. There was also a cousin in Iraq.
In 2007, encouraged by the leader of the creative writing group that she had recently joined, she tried her hand at poetry with several successes. A previous self-published collection of poetry, Dandelions: Growing Up in Cumbria with co-author Joyce Hurst, her cousin, sold well and raised several hundred pounds for charity as did Mining Memories, published by SilverWood Books, which was a runner up in the Arts and Literature Section of the 2011 Hunter Davies’ Lakeland Book of the Year Awards. Aftermath, a collection of poems and short stories marking the centenary of the start of World War I, which earned a foreword by Dame Vera Lynn, was published by SilverWood Books on Remembrance Sunday 2014 to raise funds for the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal.
She qualified in medicine, specialising in a diagnostic branch, chemical pathology, and retired in 1994. She is married with two adult children and three grandchildren and lives in Cheshire.