The Tale of a Hip

The Tale of a Hip is an account of the author’s 80-year life to date, through a period of huge social change, during which, technology has taken over from nature. It is the story of true love lasting six decades, despite the fact that physical aspects of the relationship were less good than they might have been, due to an unsuspected structural problem that only came to light when Pamela and her husband, John, took up dancing in their 40s.

The mystery of Pamela’s shifting bones is unravelled piece by piece, from art-influenced early years in Yorkshire, through the excitement and romance of working in a burgeoning post-war London, to marriage and, later, to obsession with dancing, resulting in back and hip issues for many years.

Pamela grew up in Yorkshire, moving to the Home Counties with parents in her teens. Until her early twenties, she worked in London department stores and as a nurse at St. George’s hospital.

After spending several years as a stay-at-home mum, Pamela studied for a degree in English at Reading University, followed by working in technical and non-technical editing posts for some years. More recently, she taught ballroom and Latin American dancing in partnership with her husband John, for local authorities and independently. This came to an end in 2008, when John was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.