Tag: Egham Library
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Author of One Year One Night at VE street party in London.
A VE day street party in London was the perfect place to sell our Young Adult novel-One Year One Night by SL Roman. That’s me and my writing partner Laura Meloni Bywaters, working under a pen name.I ran a quiz on street parties at the event in Pathfield road in Streatham.For more of the flavour…
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Wartime street parties to come back next month
May 2025 will see the 80th anniversary of WW2 and it will be marked by street parties in Britain which will evoke life as described in One Year One Night by SL Roman. The Young Adult novel, published in the US and elsewhere last year, is set against the background of teenager Annie who has…
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Rosy reviews for SL Roman’s One Year One Night.
Our first Young Adult novel has had a range of very good reviews. One of the most pleasing was from Kirkus – the prestigious website based in New York which welcomed a ‘heart-wrenching and beautiful story’. Myself and Laura Meloni Bywaters, the writers behind SL Roman, created a lot of lively female characters and Kirkus…
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Publicising books with the BBC
One of the hidden things about being a successful writer is that – unless you are J.K Rowling – you are going to have to promote your baby, your work of art. In the case of One Year One Night by SL Roman – written with my writing partner Laura Meloni Bywaters, it represented an…
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1940 Londoners changed their look

World War 2 brought a change in the way Londoners presented themselves. Women wore a Victory Roll hairdo which mimicked the turn of the British bomber’s wings when they dropped their deadly load. And turbans became a thing for working on shift in the weapons factories so hair didn’t get caught up in the production…
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WW2 changed lives of ordinary UK women
The heroine of One Year One Night by SL Roman is teenage Annie who keeps a diary of the huge changes in 1940. As a young woman her life is altered dramatically. Her father leaves for the Army and in return, Annie’s family in fictional Millside gets a crabby aunt to put up with and…
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The women who served in WW2 – and an American spy.
The co-authors of One Year One Night, a novel set at the beginning of WW2, try to base their novels on plenty of historical research. Laura Meloni Bywaters and Sarah Onions write under the pen name of SL Roman and their first novel was published in North America and elsewhere in August. One historical theme…
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One Year One Night blog gets a thousand views.
This wordpress blog was started to support the first young adult novel One Year One Night by SL Roman. The wartime historical fiction novel was authored by writers Laura Meloni Bywaters and Sarah Onions. It was published in North America and elsewhere by Red Chair Press. The blog was set up earlier this year to…
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Writing about WW2 – a British obsession.
Writing about World War 2 is not for the faint-hearted as most of the British have a fixed view and may have heard the stories handed down from their parents. The battle with the Nazis appears to being rerun nightly in the form of military documentaries on TV. The wartime leader Churchill’s home is still…
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The college principal who was key in the development of One Year One Night by SL Roman.
The original idea underlying the story of an unlucky boy in One Year One Night by SL Roman came through a few key individuals. They included the principal of Strode’s College in Egham Dr Frank Botham. Frank was very keen on media in general and ran a college with a number of courses in the…