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  • Widow, 93, becomes the world’s oldest first-time published author after writing a book based on more than 600 wartime love letters between herself and her late husband

Widow, 93, becomes the world’s oldest first-time published author after writing a book based on more than 600 wartime love letters between herself and her late husband

October 28, 2019

  • Widow Margaret Ford, 93, wrote a novel based on 633 wartime love-letters

  • Late husband Jim sent three a day while fighting in Burma during World War Two

  • A Daughter’s Choice charts budding romance and her childhood in Lancashire

A widow has become the world’s oldest debut author after publishing a book based on more than 600 wartime love-letters between herself and her late husband at the age of 93.

Margaret Ford’s novel, A Daughter’s Choice, charts the heart-warming romance between herself and Jim over the Second World War, as well as her childhood in Lancashire, before ending when she marries the love of her life in 1946.

Her husband, who served in the Border Regiment, used to write her three letters a day as he toured Burma and India in the mid-1940s.

Widow Margaret Ford, 93, has become the world's oldest debut author after publishing her first book at the age of 93
The pensioner wrote A Daughter's Choice based on more than 600 letters she received from her late husband Jim, pictured together in India in 1947, during the Second World War

Margaret, who has no children, said she wrote the story over three years with the help of a ghost writer because she wanted to show the difference between people back then and today

‘I have 633 letters from my husband which formed the basis of the story’, she said.

‘People like it, the reaction has been really brilliant. It was never meant to be about me, but it starts when I was born and finishes when I married Jim. 

‘It became about my life and builds up the point where a boy falls in love and stays in love.’

Speaking about the past, she said: ‘People cared for everyone, not just their immediate family.

‘You wanted to help each other back then. It feels as if everyone is in competition with each other now.’

Jim, who served in the border regiment in India and Burma, sent her three love letters a day. He sent this letter from Burma around 1945
She used the letters to form the basis of her story which, she hopes, will highlight how the world has changed since the end of the Second World War
Margaret, pictured in Blackburn in the 1940s, met her future husband at a dance

The romantic letters detail what the pair had in common, such as going to school, what they liked about Lancashire, and a pub owned by Margaret’s family.

The couple first met at a dance while Jim was on leave, shortly before he was sent out to Burma. 

‘I was at a dance when I saw Jim walk in’, she said.

‘The two of us got talking and ended up going up to the balcony to watch everyone dancing below.

‘We got on very well indeed.’

Her novel starts in 1926, the year of her birth, and recounts her working class childhood, which was spent at her grandparents’ rural pub and her parents’ small terraced house.

It details how Margaret joined the world of work after leaving a strict convent and recounts her harrowing memories of the Second World War.

In the letters they talked about their lives and bonded over a pub owned by Margaret's parents. Jim also wrote to her abut a snake, pictured holding the animal in 1946, that he captured while visiting India
The book ends after the pair marry in 1946 and move to Egypt, pictured together riding on a camel in the country in 1947
It also covers how Margaret, pictured today in  joined the world of work after leaving a convent

It also recounts the moment her father, a First World War veteran, deserted her mother when she was growing up.

‘I wished my father dead at the time’, she said, ‘at school, if your father has died you get sympathy’.

A Daughter's Choice, sold by Pan MacMillan, costs £5, with all proceeds going to Cancer Research UK

‘You can’t say to people he’s ran off with a blonde.

‘But what I didn’t know at the time was that he was in the Sherwood Foresters when he was 16 and was wounded at 17.

‘He was taken prisoner during the First World War and that obviously affected him.’

Another chapter also details a fling Margaret had with an American military medic called Hank, who came to the UK during D-Day. 

Margaret said they got on ‘very well’ but that the relationship broke down because she wasn’t willing to move to America with him.

After marrying in 1946 Margaret followed Jim to Egypt and Singapore and, after becoming bored with nothing to do, opened military bookshops to pass the time.

She first thought about penning her own novel a few years ago when she heard an interview on television about the use of a ghost writer.

She added: ‘I’ve sold books, I was asked to proof read, but I’d never really thought about writing one.

Margaret also details two of her past relationships in the book. One with American Corporal Hank Bleg, pictured with her in Blackpool in 1945
She also mentions airman Les Fielding, who she had planned to marry, but he was killed after his plane was shot down by a German sniper in 1944
Margaret pictured at a weekly dance in India in 1946. She travelled there with Jim
The book also details Margaret's early life in Lancashire including the Tanners' Arms pub, where she lived

‘So I searched online for ghost writers and eventually found a local number.. I read the lady a letter from my husband, and she was immediately interested in it and asked for more details.’

Her ghost writer got the book published on Margaret’s behalf, a process which involved numerous firm’s bidding for its rights.

She is already eyeing up a second book based on further letters from Jim while he served in India and what happened after they got married.

Jim sadly died in 2013, but Margaret has fond memories that she holds dear and will form the basis of the follow up novel.

Margaret pictured holding a photo of her and ex-partner Hank Bleg, who she split up with after refusing to move to America with him
Margaret pictured at a weekly dance in India in 1946. She is with a serviceman

She added: ‘For me, my life began when I got married

‘It’s amazing how many stories you have and how much you remember when you start thinking of them.

‘The letters are there and the story is there. I just need to write it.’

A Daughter’s Choice is available in paperback online and in book stores from Pan MacMillan.

Proceeds from the book will go to Cancer Research UK.