Member Trangie has written about her Aunt Nina Bawden, and it prompted me to ask if you have authors among your acquaintance/family. (Of course we are very proud to have Skunkee here, in FT).
Trangie says"ren asked me to put something in Bookworms about my Auntie Nina Bawden.
Firstly - she died in August this year - aged 87
She wrote @48 novels and used to write one adult novel then a children's novel. Probably her most well known novel was Carries War which tells a tale of my father and Nina when they were evacuated to Shropshire in WW11. It has been made into TV series and a couple of years ago a Westend play. She was shortlisted for the Booker prize in 1987 for Circles of Deceit - a complicated family yarn.
Nina and Austen (uncle) were both in the Potters Bar train crash - Nina badly injured and Austen killed. Nina's last novel was Dear Austen - written as a letter to Austen outlining Nina's ongoing fight for justice with the railways. A fight she ultimately won.
She was a lovely Aunt with a wicked sense of humour and great warmth. Missed by us."
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As to me, I met Christopher Robin Milne once , in Cambridge. He ran a Bookshop, I forget where. He seemed a shy type. He must have been a bit fed up with being the subject of books by his famous father.
I also met John Mortimer (Rumpole Books) whose daughter was a friend. Great fun to talk with.

When I managed a bookstore in the early 1980's, I became friends with two local authors and when they had new books released, I'd have them in the store for book signings.

Aola Vandergriff was a sweet lady who passed away in 1989. She was a romance novelist with her most famous books being the "Daughters" series. She always used to tell me that she was going to write a novel with me as her basis for the heroine. I'm sure she didn't, but it was nice to hear.

The other author was Parris Afton Bonds, another romance novelist who was a vivacious, pretty woman who also used to come to my store for book signings.

I've met quite a few other authors, but those two became friends.

Thanks ClaraSue. My dream, running a bookshop!

I've met lots of authors, though I can't say any of them were really friends. Assuming we're talking of novelists and not the academic authors I worked with - educashun don't count innit?

I grew up in Salisbury, a city used to starring in novels, especially Jude the Obscure and the Barchester Chronicles. There were two grammar schools in Salisbury, one for boys and one for girls. In theory the two schools collaborated but as the boys' school was much better funded than we were there was a good deal of rivalry, not to mention a few grudges, at least on our side. Anyway, the English master from the boys' school turned up one day to give an English Lit class to us girls. He didn't seem to like girls much, at least not en masse and in gymslips, but despite that he came along and talked to us, bigger girls on chairs, us little 'uns on the floor. He'd had a few books published by then and he talked about them, answered some questions, then left. I don't think I'd read any by that point but shortly after his visit they made a film of one of his books and we certainly all saw that. Mr Golding resigned from the boys' school around then presumably because the film gave him a financial cushion which schoolmastering never did. Lord of the Flies was, allegedly, partly based on the boys school - we spent ages after the film came out trying to pin down whose elder brother was Piggy and who the cruel boys were, lol. William Golding had a nickname locally, he was called "Old Scruff" - he had a straggly beard and wore tweed jackets, and he was often to be seen at the market where Augustus John also used to hang out. As did my father. Of course it wasn't until I was a bit older, and realised who these guys were and that my father knew them, that I wished I'd paid more attention!

My grandfather used to say that HIS great grandmother was Harriet Beecher Stowe which is pretty impressive .. if it's true. I've never seen evidence of it but we won't let facts get in the way of a good story.

Otherwise we had an author, a lovely woman, named Jane Carroll come and visit us one day. She has written lots of kid's books and also does workshops on writing with kids. She was in my son's school seeing how it all worked and my son's teacher was doing a home visit so she came along. She worked with the boy and then afterwards while he went off with his teacher I got some time with her and it was really very valuable and it changed the way that I was trying to get this kid to write!

Aspiring authors, I have known, no actual authors Except, of course, for a sportswriter in the one paper (I don't know him well, but he married into the family the other year.

And I interviewed the editor of a local paper for a college assignment.

I have met a number of authors and own autographed copies of their books (including Christopher Plummer) but the only author I have known (besides myself) is Susan Crossman. She has one book out called "Shades of Teal" (and no it's not part of that erotic fiction trend).
Years ago while in high school, I washed dishes at a local restaurant. I was in chanrge of hiring (and firing) the part timers and making the schedule. She was the younger sister of a classmate and I gave her her first job!