Nostalgia Interviews With Chris Deacy

My guest this week is Canadian author, Nichola Zacher, writer of the adventures of the Marley series of children’s books. The second instalment, ‘Marley the Dreamer’, is newly released and we learn from Nichola how it is a response to her father being diagnosed with dementia. We discover how Nichola’s literary career started. Nichola lives in Ontario but her grandmother was born in Bournemouth, England. In her books, Nichola draws on real life experiences from her dad’s life. She talks about how Marley touches her readers’ hearts, and we learn about the influences on her writing – love, acceptance and empathy – and how books are a good way to connect with children. Nichola reflects on how she was able to do book signings before Covid and we learn that she used to work as an early childhood teacher. We discover that she doesn’t intend to return to that and is enjoying keeping her father’s story alive. Nichola talks about her kind teacher from England who helped her along the way, and we find out th