Lucy Simister has written several biographical books and her subjects include John Keats, Elizabeth Barrett and Charles Dickens. In 2012 she wrote the book for the children’s musical ‘Trouble at Mill,’ and in 2014 wrote and published the comedy play ‘The Jolly Sailor’ - full of piratey goings on based in Plymouth.
She works for Children’s Amateur Theatre Society and can be found most weekends on the road playing in one of several bands. With her writing, drama and gigs life can get pretty busy!
Elizabeth Barrett's stay in Torquay was to be catalytic in shaping her output over the rest of her life. The good times - her exposure to the intellectual elite of the day - and the bad times - losing her brother in a boating accident - were pivotal. This book concentrates on her social and domestic life - which gives an intimate insight into the real Elizabeth - the person and the poet.
This is a three part story. Firstly Charles Babbage's ancestors through the ages, secondly, his own history - his life as a child and a teenager (and also his family life and his relationship with the remarkable Ada Bryon), and thirdly what inspired him to want to build a computer and his life as an inventor.