In 1965 while on holiday, Ken and Chris Davies bought a two acre property on the small feudal Island of Sark, in the British Channel Islands just off the coast of France. Leaving their jobs as district nurse and advertising executive in London, England they set up a guest house. It was a steep learning curve, as they had not done anything like this before. Chris had to learn to master a solid fuel cooker, cook for up to fourteen guests, and cope without motor transport, as cars were forbidden. Guests were met by horse and carriage and cycling was the main means of transport. Eventually Chris...

In 'To Sark and Beyond' Chris Davies Curtis has combined her three previous books, 'So You Want to Live on Sark, ' 'From a Feudal Isle to Aotearoa, ' and 'From Queen's Nurse to Godzone.' Starting dramatically with her experiences as a district nurse in London in the early 1960s, where she visits her patients by bicycle, we then move to Sark. In this tiny feudal British Channel Island, she and husband Ken open a guest house and develop a smallholding with 200 hens, goats, bees and the donkey, Pedro. They have to learn to milk: grade and sell eggs: extract honey and drive a donkey cart. As...

In her previous books Chris tells of her move to the tiny Feudal Island of Sark, in the British Channel Isles with her husband Ken, to run their guest house and smallholding. They then journey out to New Zealand to explore and finally settle there. Over the years the marriage starts to falter and in the opening chapter of 'So You Returned to Sark' it comes to a dramatic head. Chris returns to Sark with 'the love of her life, ' Peter, and begins a very different existence. She becomes involved in many activities in the community; from the Water Carnival to the Sheep Races and the Channel...

In her third book Chris Davies Curtis looks at her life as a district nurse. From London in the 60s to New Zealand in the 70s she describes with humour and pathos the many patients she treated and the sometimes difficult situations she encountered. We meet again husband Ken and read how they met on a pony-trekking holiday, learn of their early years of marriage in London and their eventual emigration to New Zealand in 1976 with young son Roy. After a two-year working tour of New Zealand (see 'From a Feudal Isle to Aotearoa') they had fallen in love with this beautiful country. They leased off...

After seven years of running their guest house and smallholding on the tiny feudal Island of Sark in the British Channel Islands, Chris and Ken Davies decided to have a two-year break. In 1972 they packed their suitcases and booked passage, with young son Roy, to New Zealand, calling at many exotic places en route. Arriving in Auckland, they bought a Bedford 18cwt delivery van and the three Davies set off to drive all over the two Islands, from Cape Reinga to Stewart Island, living mainly in the van. From a Feudal Isle to Aotearoa tells the true story of the trip out by ship, the many places...

It is the 1950s. Tina, Hine and Sally are three young women who meet for the first time at the Preliminary Training School of a large Midland Hospital Group. After a rocky start the girls with very different backgrounds, form a lasting friendship. Tina comes from a sheltered life in a middle-class family in Stratford-on-Avon: Hine is half Maori and had an illegitimate child in New Zealand, but this is not known to the others for some time. Sally was born with a silver spoon in her mouth but after a escapade in Switzerland, is packed off to train to be a nurse, much to her disgust. The story...

In this sequel to 'Nurses in Training' which can be read as a 'stand alone' romance, we meet again Tina Anderson and Hine Weaver. The two nurses are now State Registered and plan to travel out to New Zealand to try and find Hine's little son. Sally, the third of the three friends, has married Peter Phillips, the surgeon and lives happily in the Midlands of England. Hine and Tina decide to travel out by ship, and helped by Peter Phillips get employment on the 'Fairsky' to help pay their way. Hine starts out in the nursery and Tina is the ship's nurse. At first Tina has trouble with the only...

Monique (Nikki) de Caen is third generation Tobagan French. She lives in London with her grandmother Fleur, whom she calls Gran'mom, as her parents left her to go to America. They said they would send for her but never did. Nikki is a rebel. Although she qualified as a Nurse, she becomes involved with the 1960s 'Flower Power Movement, ' much to her grandmother's disgust. Here she meets Jacko who goes off with money Nikki had saved to go to America. After an argument with Fleur, Nikki answers an advertisement for a horse-drawn carriage driver in the tiny car-free Feudal Island of Sark in the...

Life was exciting for the young Ellie Carre after she left school in the Island of Guernsey, in the British Channel islands. She managed to get a job in a prestigious store and caught the eye of Henri Le Feuvre, the man she had admired for years. There was also Simon Purdy, the manager's nephew, who fell for the lovely young woman. She enjoyed the admiration of both men, and was delighted to be able to share a flat with the glamorous Ginny. Then everything went wrong: she became pregnant and found herself in a loveless marriage, back on the Island of Sark where she was born. 'Ellie's Story'...