AUTHOR, SCREENWRITER, EXPAT, BLIGHTY CHAMPION, raconteuse
If you can't find some fun in it - don't bother.
- Pandora
When the going gets tough - the tough fix themselves a stiff Martini.
- Pandora
- Pandora
Where did the Neath A Pilgrim Chronicles spring from? Pandora has always been an avid reader especially in her youth. She read anything and everything that entered her sphere of interest both fiction and non-fiction. Television finished with the Test-card and she frequented the cinema at least once a week to watch Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy and Hergé’s adventures of Tintin. Pandora loved the adventure and mystery of the lives she saw on the screen and imagined between the pages.
When she was eight, the family moved from London to Devon after her parents divorced. The rural environment spurred her to explore and create stories about supernatural beings that lived in the woods and glens. She was frequently chosen to play dramatic roles in school plays and began writing, gaining her first award. At the age of eighteen she moved to Brussels and took an acting role with the Brussels Shakespeare Company, as Miranda in The Tempest.
By the age of nineteen she had returned to England and began an apprenticeship to become a professional Chef. She met her future husband, Pascal Gillon a former Sergeant in the French Army. In 1986, she and Pascal set off for the USA where they set up their own business. Seven years later they returned to the UK to marry and start a family.
With the arrival of their second daughter they moved to New York. After a little over a year they decided to relocate back to Southern California During Pandoras' time on the West Coast she wrote the first draft of what is to be the third book in the Neath A Pilgrim Chronicles, PILGRIM AND THE FALL OF KINGS.
After six years the decision was made to move to France and renew family ties. It was during this time she made an early call from France to the USA to Algonquin Press; surprisingly Chuck Adams picked up the phone as his receptionist hadn’t arrived to work yet. Pandora asked if he’d be kind enough to read a little of her work and tell her honestly if he thought she could write. Shortly after receiving her extract of PILGRIM AND THE FALL OF KINGS, she received an email back saying; although he wasn’t a fan of the sci-fi genre, yes, she could write. Based on that email Pandora made the decision to strive to become a professional writer. After a democratic vote by her husband and daughters who chose to relocate back to the UK, she began her debut novel in October 2012, PILGRIM THE BALANCE. Taking one year to complete the manuscript and even longer to edit and polish; she worked with the editor, producer and screenwriter L. Smith formally with Lucas Film LA. The novel was published in 2015, followed in 2016 by PILGRIM AND THE GEOMETRY OF FEAR, selling hundreds of copies within the first twenty-four hours.
Pandora draws on her unique experience of the human condition having lived in poverty as a child and working abroad with billionaires. As she is quick to point out; they are the two most candid ends of the scale and have proven invaluable to her writing.
In her own words she describes her style of writing:
“I’m a practical dreamer. All manner of whimsies flaunt my mind, but those I’m willing to entertain ultimately have an underlying tone of gravity.”
When she was eight, the family moved from London to Devon after her parents divorced. The rural environment spurred her to explore and create stories about supernatural beings that lived in the woods and glens. She was frequently chosen to play dramatic roles in school plays and began writing, gaining her first award. At the age of eighteen she moved to Brussels and took an acting role with the Brussels Shakespeare Company, as Miranda in The Tempest.
By the age of nineteen she had returned to England and began an apprenticeship to become a professional Chef. She met her future husband, Pascal Gillon a former Sergeant in the French Army. In 1986, she and Pascal set off for the USA where they set up their own business. Seven years later they returned to the UK to marry and start a family.
With the arrival of their second daughter they moved to New York. After a little over a year they decided to relocate back to Southern California During Pandoras' time on the West Coast she wrote the first draft of what is to be the third book in the Neath A Pilgrim Chronicles, PILGRIM AND THE FALL OF KINGS.
After six years the decision was made to move to France and renew family ties. It was during this time she made an early call from France to the USA to Algonquin Press; surprisingly Chuck Adams picked up the phone as his receptionist hadn’t arrived to work yet. Pandora asked if he’d be kind enough to read a little of her work and tell her honestly if he thought she could write. Shortly after receiving her extract of PILGRIM AND THE FALL OF KINGS, she received an email back saying; although he wasn’t a fan of the sci-fi genre, yes, she could write. Based on that email Pandora made the decision to strive to become a professional writer. After a democratic vote by her husband and daughters who chose to relocate back to the UK, she began her debut novel in October 2012, PILGRIM THE BALANCE. Taking one year to complete the manuscript and even longer to edit and polish; she worked with the editor, producer and screenwriter L. Smith formally with Lucas Film LA. The novel was published in 2015, followed in 2016 by PILGRIM AND THE GEOMETRY OF FEAR, selling hundreds of copies within the first twenty-four hours.
Pandora draws on her unique experience of the human condition having lived in poverty as a child and working abroad with billionaires. As she is quick to point out; they are the two most candid ends of the scale and have proven invaluable to her writing.
In her own words she describes her style of writing:
“I’m a practical dreamer. All manner of whimsies flaunt my mind, but those I’m willing to entertain ultimately have an underlying tone of gravity.”
