She has since then written two more novels in the 'Shadows Over the Solent' series. Shadows of smoke from bombed houses and burning aircraft in 'Bombweed', shadows of parental wartime trauma and secrets visited on the children born in 1944, in 'Kissed to Death' (2021)and 'Kiss and Don't Tell' (2025) as they face the challenges of the fifties and sixties.
Gillian had retired from a long career as a therapist working with children when she was faced with a huge task. How to turn her mother's badly typed flimsy pages of 'history as fiction' into something readable? With her sister's help the work was done.
The question then was 'what next'? Writing ,albeit in fiction, Gillian 's curiosity about her own past spurred her to write more. Unsurprisingly, she drew on her experience as an educational psychotherapist to explore the impact of wartime secrets and trauma on children. The next two books focus very much on the experience of children born during wartime.
The three books now have the overall title of 'Shadows Over the Solent'
In the first book it is the shadows of smoke from bombs, buildings and planes on fire. In the next two books the shadows are from unresolved trauma, dark secrets and terrible absences which leave their mark on the children of the peace. How will they manage this inheritance as they begin to deal with the present as young adults?
2. Contributed
again, the old seaside shelter. Portsmouth artist the late Harold Maddick Photo: Submitted
3. Contributed
Gillian taking part in the Portsmouth Authors Collective book stall at a Love Southsea event 2025 Photo: Submitted
4. Contributed
Gillian and sister Maureen Armstrong presenting the books at The Imperial War Museum Photo: Submitted