I'm Only The Editor

About the Book

This is the true story of Charles Hayes, a man who, from the time he was a school-boy essay-winner in England, set out to become a writer and news broadcaster. A lifetime of adventure led him, as a young articled clerk in a London lawyer's office, to WW2, when he became an Infantry Officer in the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders. After his experiences in Burma, he was sent in 1946 to Simla in the Himalayas where, a year later, he was present at the partition of Pakistan and India.

On his release from the army, he boarded a ship in India bound for England with his wife and two young children. After a four-day stop-over on the East African coast they decided to go no further. He accepted a post as District Officer in Kenya, a country which he was destined to enjoy for the next 35 years.

With a 'golden' voice, he was the perfect 'stringer' for BBC - the British Broadcasting Service for Foreign News, sending daily reports to the world and was an avid news writer for several English and South African newspapers. He also used his voice, and his love of acting, to star in many theatrical productions and films shot in Kenya.

By the early 1950s, as Mau Mau (The War of Liberation) threatened Kenya, Hayes was instrumental in starting the first Kishwahili newspaper and, as Editing Director, soon developed the Standard Newspapers (Nation Series) Ltd. , publishing daily and Sunday newspapers in the English Language. In the early 1960s, His Highness, the Aga Khan, bought shares in the company which now has the largest newspaper coverage in East Africa.

On his retirement in 19890, Hayes immigrated to British Columbia, Canada, with his third wife and young daughter, to start a small-town weekly newspaper, The South Okanagan Review, which was published for 15 years.

Between 1996 and his death in April 2000, at the age of 85, Hayes wrote a book on Kenya and 3 books on British Columbian pioneers.

This Love Letter as a Biography captures the spirit of the Indian and African adventures and experiences of a remarkable gentleman, Charles Hayes.

About the Author

Born in the mellow English county of Devonshire, the author, after her second marriage and with her 4 children, travelled to Kenya, East Africa, where they lived for the next 23 years.

She identified closely with Kenyan women, recording their successes for Kenyan newspapers and magazines; Sunday Post, The Nation Series of England language newspapers and African Drum magazines. In the 70s, she was publisher of Contact, the magazine of the Kenya Consumer's Association.

A skilled photographer, the author was present at many historic east African events, later writing a book of her African experiences: Where The Tarmac Ends -- to East Africa with Love.

In 1964 she met Charles Hayes, editorial director of Kenya's The Nation Series of Newspapers. They fell in love and were married ten years later.

In 1980, the author, with her husband and their young daughter, immigrated to British Columbia, Canada, publishing for the following 15 years a small-town weekly newspaper, The South Okanagan Review, through their company Rima Publications Ltd.

Widowed since 2000, the author continues to live in Okanagan Falls, British Columbia, writing books and occasional articles for an overseas magazine.