Gail Taplin

Gail Taplin was born in Essex, England in 1960. She was an only child until the age of seven and whilst not an outgoing child, she was interested in many things and would happily go walking down the lanes of Stanford-le-Hope, exploring nature and collecting pieces of pottery and old glass which she found in the surrounding fields. Such finds were the result of centuries of dumped refuse, brought by barges from London along the Thames to Mucking tip and its surrounds. She attended Hassenbrook Comprehensive Senior School. It was here that she gained her love of literature at the hands of popular English teachers, Mrs Williams and Mr Lynch. She became fascinated by the history of her local area with the realisation that the school was named after nearby Hassingbrooke Manor and that her home town was named after a bend in the Thames known as the "Hope", a shelter from the currents for passing ships and boats, "Stanford" being a "stony ford" enabling a crossing of "the hope". She went on t