Islander, Bethan Stritton (nee Christopher) is a name that long term readers will remember. We first featured Bethan and her writing achievements way back in 2005, not long after we started VB.
Despite bringing up two young children, Bethan had continued to write and publish books. She’s moved on from children’s book to personal growth manuals like Grow Your Own Gorgeousness and Mango Marmalade, A Gratitude Journal. Recently Bethan has got into blogging, interviewing interesting people she’s met on her journeys. The first is with Island script-writer, Bede Blake. Ed
“It’s strange I’ve ended up living here,” reflects Bede Blake. He points across the esplanade to the Blake’s beach hut on Ventnor seafront where two gulls are sunning themselves in the early April rays.
“My mother was English. She came to Ventnor on holiday in her early twenties and would have walked along this seafront. Later she went to Australia where she met my father. Our family surname is Blake and my parent’s combined initials are the same as the initials written on the Blake’s beach hut, just over there.”
Born and grew up in Sydney
Despite this coincidental connection to the Ventnor Blakes, Bede’s family are in no other way related.
He was born and grew up in Sydney and later, when Bede was a teen, his family moved to Tasmania.
He tells me, “My father was an artist. He was a painter, created sculptures and was also a photographer and musician. He tended to float from one thing to the next. One minute he was painting and the next minute he was in a jazz band. Our house was always filled with paintings and half-finished projects.”
With his early years immersed in such free flowing creativity, it is hardly surprising that Bede’s life would take on a similar hue. A lover of film, his childhood dream was to one day produce films based on his own scripts.
Read the rest of the article over on Bethan’s website.
