Northumberland author releases novel on life with Huntington's and female equality
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One of the North East’s first ever female journalists has released a novel exploring life with a rare disease and the fight for women’s equality.
Lesley Bootiman is an award-winning journalist who was raised in Warkworth.
Her debut novel, Gifts is a multi-generational saga that explores the human impact of living with Huntington's Disease through the eyes of the women in the Greig family.
The book follows Bella Grieg, a teenage girl in the 60s who dreams of being a pop star, but is at risk of inheriting Huntington’s Disease as well as musical talent.
Lesley first came across the disease when she was working as a journalist and has been researching it ever since.
“Throughout all my life and my career, I started to hear about it more and more and I gradually built up this full picture of it,” she added.
"If you are from a Huntington’s family, you have hanging over you the possibility of this ghastly disease. If you have children, you have a 50% chance of your children inheriting it.
"But the book isn’t so much about the disease, because I'm not a medic, it's more about the people and how they handle it.”
Gifts has now been supported by the Huntington’s Disease Association just as the first successful treatment of the disease took place last year in a major breakthrough.
Lesley said: “It was the same time they made a big announcement to say that, after so much research, they can now do an operation on the brain which can slow down the development.
“For the people who are living with Huntington’s, it’s just the most astonishing bit of news they could have had.”
As well as insight into Huntington's, Gifts gives a fascinating insight into the decades after the war. Inspired by her own experiences, the book touches on the fight women had for equality.
At just 17-years-old, with sheer determination, Lesley became one of the North East’s first ever female reporters, working for The Chronicle’s branch in Ashington.
She then went on to work at BBC Radio Durham, launching in 1968, before eventually working for the BBC in Bristol, launching her own production company and writing comedy.
“Everyone in the town knew me because it was just so unheard of,” Lesley said. “As far as I know, I was the first news reporter who was a woman they had in their branch offices.”
Part of the story is also about girl who had an illegitimate child who she had to give up due to the stigma during that time.
Lesley added: “It all traces back to how women had to cope. It is hard for people now to understand how hard women have had to work.
“I feel very much about strong women and there are a lot of strong women in the north. There were strong women then, there had to be. and there are strong women now.”
Although the book explores difficult themes, the story remains uplifting and hopeful. "The Huntington Families that I have come across inspired that as they have been extraordinary,” Lesley said.
Gifts is now available to purchase on Amazon. Looking towards the future, Lesley has plans to make the story into a screenplay.