Valerie Davies

I’ve had an adventurous life, living through the Blitz in England, a stint in post-war Germany with my army family, living in the former "Beast of Belsen" residence at Belsen, travelling to school ...view moreI’ve had an adventurous life, living through the Blitz in England, a stint in post-war Germany with my army family, living in the former "Beast of Belsen" residence at Belsen, travelling to school in Malaya in an armoured convoy through bandit-infested jungle, finding myself trapped in the middle of the first Red Guard march in Hong Kong during the Cultural revolution in China. In New Zealand, I once woke to find a grey-suited man with a stocking over his head in our bedroom during my husband Pat Booth's fight to free an innocent man wrongly jailed for a double murder (he was pardoned at the end of the eight-year battle). Then there was the time I found the wheels of my car had been tampered with to cause an accident when the Mr Asia drug ring – a world-wide drug ring my crusading journalist husband exposed - had put a price on his head. I grew up in an army family, joining the British army myself. I was a captain when I married. Living in Hong Kong with my army husband, I had to learn journalism on the run when the marriage broke up in order to support my two children. Eventually I came to New Zealand with them aged five and six, knowing no-one, with no money, no job and no home, to start from scratch in a new country. We arrived with three suitcases, in which I’d packed sheets and cutlery to start a new home! I was Woman's Editor of the South China Morning Post before leaving Hong Kong, and in New Zealand became a writer at the liberal paper the Auckland Star, where I wrote a popular column for twelve years, and became Woman's Editor, and at the same time wrote a column for families and children in the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly for fourteen years. For years the Solo Parent column I wrote made me to some extent a voice for lone parents when they had no voice. Since leaving full-time journalism I’ve written for magazines, and written a few books, and am in the middle of two more... Nowadays, after twenty five years of counselling and personal growth myself, I also enjoy life-coaching, and watching people who’ve been burdened become light and joyful. My main 'hobby' is the spiritual life, others are gardening, grandchildren, reading, cooking, moving house and restoring and re-decorating the new hovel, friends, music, opera, pets and people watching ( there must be more). Arthritis in my hands has compelled me to give up knitting, embroidery, and painting. I don’t have dogs any more, but over the years have had seventeen, mostly rescued, usually three at a time, including three afghans, two salukis, a borzoi, a labrador, six King Charles cavalier spaniels, a boxer, a mastiff-boxer cross, a mastiff, plus the lodgers – the dogs who came to spend the day with me while their owners were at work ! It isn’t just pets that I care about, I’m involved with several world –wide animal organisations both to save animals from being tortured and exploited (including bull-fighting and bear-baiting) – and to save wild animals whose habitats are being destroyed by hunting or clearing. And of course, like the rest of us, I worry about preserving our planet before it’s too late.view less