My life as an author

I have self published my debut novel The Tokyo Express, which explores how love is put to the test when family and disaster strike. For Owen in war-torn Tokyo, his love affair with Mariko was never going to survive the huge cultural divide but it didn’t stop him pining for her for the next 60 years of his life. He tries to warn his his grandson Conor of his foolish mistakes. But it is only when Conor is desperately seeking for his Japanese wife after the tsunami has struck her hometown, that he realise how his own selfish behaviour is to blame for the loss of Mimi. Is it too late also for him? An unforgettable story crossing continents and generations. But as Conor discovers, forgiveness is an incredible gift.

I have written this book in stages, fitting it around having a family, moving from one side of the world to the other and working at several high pressured jobs in between! I also did a huge amount of research, interviewing people who lived in the post-war era in Japan as well as veterans fighting the Japanese in Asia. The 1945 story of Japan is a little told one but full of quite surprising intrigue. Essentially I wanted to explore that pressure which international couples face – that of cultural clash.

Having moved to Japan with a British guy, I never really took to the dating scene but I observed many who did, usually Western men and the Japanese girls who fussed over them more than their own mothers. Not surprising few ever went home again including my ex! When I came back form Asia I was struck by something else, reverse culture shock when everything from your own culture is surprisingly and sometimes annoying.

 I spent many years abroad in my 20s and so even though I surprised many friends by meeting a British guy, he was as well traveled as myself and we are bringing our girls up to be little explorers too. We prefer trains to planes, street markets to MacDonalds and on the one time we gave in to the peer pressure to take them to Disneyland Paris, they said they preferred the day in Paris, and remember arriving at the Eiffel Tower just in time for the lights going on, as if we’d arranged that for them. Makes me proud how they have opened their eyes too to the world around them.

A little more about me: My interests include sailing (last summer I qualified as a flotilla day skipper!) and hope soon to get a boat; languages (I graduated in French and Russian and am fairly okay at conversing in Japanese, plus a few Chinese swear words from my time in Hong Kong!); Scuba Diving ( PADI Advanced cert with over 100 dives logged); and Politics (but don’t get me started!)

I have a life-disabling illness (M.E) that I also blog about here: http://100daystogetwell.weebly.com/

You can also find out more about me here:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/UnaRoseauthorauthor

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unaroseauthor

Webpage: http://www.estuarypublishing.co.uk/authors/unarose