Elizabeth Newell's joy at seeing her first novel in print is tempered by the fact that a sequel may have to be put on the back-burner.

She is delighted that Kith & Kin has been published - but a broken arm has put paid to plans to write a speedy follow-up.

"It's so annoying," said Mrs Newell, of Gilstead, Bingley. "I was in Roundhay Park in Leeds and telling the children not to slip and, of course, it was me that went down.

"I can hardly write my name. I've been told it will be four months before I can write again."

In the meantime Mrs Newell is having to content herself with watching television and reading other people's works.

Nonetheless, she is delighted at having her first novel published, though jokes that with seemingly only one copy circulating in Crossflatts, it will be a long time if ever before she gets rich.

Mrs Newell - well known as Yorkshire Observer correspondent for the Bingley area - wanted to produce a book for a long time, but took four years to get into print, despite a lengthy track record of poetry, short stories and articles.

She took the well-worn advice of writing about what you know to tell the story of Maggie Holroyd, a working class woman born into a small Yorkshire village at the start of the century.

Mrs Newell - known as Betty - said her experience in nursing and industry helped, as did long conversations with her mother, Margaret. Now dead, she told of slate pencils and women teachers who, if they married, had to give up their positions. A woman's place was very much in the home.

Writing came easily to Mrs Newell, as it has all her life - at school she used to love entering writing contests, though, she said, being retired helped her find the time to concentrate on the book.

More forbidding was having to read from her work - the most terrifying experience of her life - on radio and television.

"I was so nervous, if you are not used to it, it is difficult and I shall not be doing that again," she said.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.