A Flock of Blackbirds: Selected Short Stories (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781910301050)

Brought up in South London, Susan Noble was the second of three children. Her childhood was enriched by being part of our large and closely-knit Jewish family. Unfortunately stricken by polio (then known as infantile paralysis) in her early years, Susan went through life with a degree of physical handicap which she was to overcome with courage and determination. Educated at Croydon High School, Susan studied English at Somerville College, Oxford. After graduating, Susan worked in London, first at the Royal National Institute for the Blind, dictating books for transcription into Braille, and later at the National Central Library in London, where she qualified as a Chartered Librarian. Susan's exceptional sensitivity was reflected not only in the intense outpouring of poems to be found in The Dream of Stairs, Inside the Stretch of My Heart, and Before and After the Darkness, but also in the short stories that make up this collection. In these haunting, poignant stories, she chronicles her personal response to the world around her, while vividly portraying the inner landscape of her own mental and emotional struggle. 'There was an intellectual and emotional intensity which burned within her and which predominantly found outward expression in her writing and when she expressed herself thus she did so with great imaginative power and also with an uncompromising honesty and integrity.' (Rabbi Dr David Goldstein)