Vee Walker - Editor
Love of family history was the start point for Vee Walker’s unique début novel Major Tom’s War (Kashi House), which evolved from a narrative non-fiction account of an unlikely WWI courtship into gripping historical fiction. Her unexpected success at the SAHR Military History Fiction Awards in October 2019 led her to undertake a solo book tour of India.
Vee writes both fiction and non-fiction. Her novels are so closely based on archive material that they can be used as academic source texts.
Vee honed her writing/editing skills as a heritage consultant for 20+ years, working with museums and natural/cultural/historic sites throughout the UK. Her poetry and descriptive writing can be found within unusual interpretive installations on mountains, in forests and along the coast.
She was also commissioned to write pieces of site-based drama by The Royal Geographical Society (Antarctic Science, 2001), British Waterways (the AHI Caliba Award-winning Harry’s Cut, set on the 1950s Birmingham canals network, 2002), and The National Trust for Scotland (#FindAleckie, 2019).
Vee often runs creative writing workshops.
Find Vee on Twitter here: @veewalkerwrites
Testimonials
- Elizabeth Sutherland, author, Highland Cathedral, The Seer of Kintail and Lent Term
- Glennis McClemont, author, The Change Baby
- Eleanor Bird, author, The Night Heron
- Jeremy W.
- Jan L.
- Aneeta S.
WHY WE LOVE VEE
Vee’s background and authorial success make her a true asset for writers of historical fiction. Her interest in a wide range of genres ensures that many authors can benefit from her helpful and supportive reports. She’s a kind and charming editor – check out Vee’s testimonials for further proof!
WHAT VEE SAYS ABOUT EDITING
There is nothing I love more than suggesting a tiny adjustment which helps a paragraph take flight; nothing better than when a client says, ‘that was a really tough process, Vee, but you were right.’
Writing can sometimes feel like a cruel business, can’t it, and yet something keeps us hunched over our keyboards, tapping away. I can provide the feedback, insight and tools you need to help you maximise the fruits of your midnight labours.
It pays to burnish your hard work until it shines: I have learned the hard way that a manuscript is seldom quite as finished as one believes. A future agent/content editor will often demand sweeping changes and I can help you anticipate these to save rejection or heartache later.
I am unfailingly kind, but I am also honest. It takes courage to accept constructive feedback. If you are ready to embark on your own editing adventure with me through Jericho Writers, please get in touch.
In non-fiction, I enjoy all work with links to genealogy, Scotland, the Scottish Highlands, travel, the natural environment, popular tradition, archaeology, folklore, France (I speak fluent French), WWI, India, British history generally, theatre, art, music, cooking and food.
What Vee works on
Manuscript assessment
Developmental Editing
Agent Submission Pack assessment
Post-editorial guidance
Genres Vee specialises in
Vee's published books
Major Tom’s War
This epic WWI novel of love and war centres on the unlikely courtship of Tom and Evie, Vee’s grandparents, but also features the activities of the Indian Cavalry on the Western Front, the courage of occupied towns in northern France and explores the darker side of corrupt officers and military justice. Vee likes to point out that she is living proof of a happy ending.
Major Tom’s War was a prizewinner at the inaugural Society for Army Research Military History Fiction Awards 2019.
Non-Fiction: The 1810 Cookbook
The original 1810 Cookbook was assembled by Vee’s 3 x great grandmother from 1810 onwards and includes both culinary and drastic medicinal recipes. In 2011 Vee reprinted it with detailed family history notes, uncovering a long-forgotten family tragedy.
The 1810 Cookbook featured in Homes & Gardens Magazine in 2013
and on the BBC’s Kitchen Café in 2015: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02rc2py
Published by FTRR Press in 2011, no longer in print. You can see Vee having fun making some of the 1810 Cookbook recipes during Lockdown 2020 on the Facebook page for the book.
Drama: #FindAleckie
This role-play drama commissioned by The National Trust for Scotland is set in the nightmarish aftermath of civil war and the Battle of Culloden. One family is caught up in the turmoil when they realise that Aleckie is missing.
#FindAleckie was due for launch at Easter 2020 but this was postponed due to Lockdown. An edited version was performed before an invited audience on Zoom in February 2022.
Short Story: Cinder Toffee
This fact-based short story explores the discovery of the Moine Thrust (proof of the existence of tectonic plates) at Knockan Crag by the eccentric geologists Peach and Horne.
Vee published her recipe for Cinder Toffee alongside the story.
Cinder Toffee was awarded the Fiction Prize at the Hugh Miller Writing Competition in 2019.
The short story will be published in a forthcoming collection.
