A renowned Scottish author has gifted a full set of her books for the enjoyment of fellow residents at Rubislaw!

A renowned Scottish author has gifted a full set of her books for the enjoyment of fellow residents at Rubislaw.

Writing as Nora Kay and described as “Scotland’s Catherine Cookson,” Nora Kelly published a total of ten books during her writing career which only began in her 70s. Now a resident of Rubislaw Park Care Home, she is still selling copies of her novels and continues to receive fan mail from around the world including New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

Born and raised in County Durham and Northumberland, Mrs Kelly spent much of her life in Dundee and worked as a speech therapy assistant. Her passion, however, lay in realising her childhood ambition of writing and she wrote detective serial stories for The Courier and Evening Telegraph as Nora Kelly before putting pen to paper as Nora Kay for her first book: “A Woman of Spirit” which was published in 1994 when Mrs Kelly was 72. 

Our 66-bed Rubislaw Park Care Home was recently the focus of an extensive multimillion pound refurbishment project which incorporated the creation of new facilities, including a library for residents.  Mrs Kelly’s gift to her fellow residents has been located in the popular room so that as many people as possible can enjoy her volumes.

Director of Care Kristin Jackson-Brown said: “On behalf of the staff and residents, I would like to express our sincere thanks to Nora for her kind and generous gift.  We hope that people will enjoy her books as well as being inspired by her path to becoming a successful published author.”

Offering advice to budding authors, Nora Kelly added: “I think I always had a talent but I was not really encouraged – but I still managed to realise my dream of writing.

“One key to the success of my writing was the support of my late husband who fuelled me with coffee and chocolate and accepted that it wasn’t going to be a 9-5 job.  I always carried a notebook and pencil wherever I went and I think that is the single most important thing a writer can do.  My favourite part of writing was dialogue because making a character speak truly lifts them off the page and brings them to life.”