business INDEX The BUSINESS


This Is Your Life WHITSTABLE


Whitstable writer Marnie Summerfi eld Smith has set up a new business helping people tell their life stories. Marnie, 36, who began her writing career as a reporter for the Whitstable Times 10 years ago, created “Your Memoir” earlier this year. She found the inspiration for her venture after co-writing “Home From War” – the true story of British soldier Martyn Compton, who was disfi gured in an explosion while serving in Hellmand, Afghanistan, in 2006 but went on to marry Kentish sweetheart Michelle Clifford, whose loving dedication he credits for his recovery. Home From War was


published by Headline and was the fi rst book to have a foreword written by HRH Prince William.


“Ghosting Martyn and


Michelle’s book was a brilliant writing experience,” says Marnie. “After years of articles it was great to get my teeth into something nearly 100,000 words long. I have since concentrated on ghostwriting and have several projects underway.” Marnie expects her next book to be the story of a soldier who has overcome Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. “When I tell people I am a ghost, their response is often that they’d love to have someone write their life story,” says Marnie. “We all love to tell our stories. And especially for older people, the desire to have our lives written down for the future generations is hugely powerful. I decided that


Selling fromage to the French CANTERBURY


A city food artisan is achieving the gastronomic equivalent of selling snow to Eskimos. He’s selling Kent’s cheese to the French. George Ward has signed up Histoire Ancienne, a popular bistro in the centre of Calais, for an order of Kelly’s Canterbury Goat, one of Cheesemakers Of Canterbury’s hard goat’s cheeses, to use in a sauce for scallops. He also has bookings from Tony L’Estienne, chef patron of Michelin-starred La Matelote in Boulogne. A purchase by gastronome Tony will alert all the chefs in the region, who tend to belong to professional clubs like the Toque d’Opale for chefs. It’s not just George


George Ward from Cheesemakers of Canterbury


fi nding French custom. Patrick Dear, of Patriana, who like George is based at The Good’s Shed, Canterbury, offers traditional food from the Basque country and Spain, and is fi nding sales in the Nord Pas de Calais region. Spurring their success is the TEN Project, an initiative from Canterbury City Council to help businesses expand into France and Belgium. TEN helped pay for them to attend a trade fair in Calais last month.


Among those attending


the fair was the Lycee de Detroit, a school specializing in catering NVQ courses. “This is how to capture the next generation of chefs,” said George. “I’m immensely proud of the reaction our cheeses had, and warmed by the attitude of the French towards them. Having thought our only cheese was an orange-coloured cheddar that came in huge rectaingular blocks, they now know there is a real, artisanal renaissance of cheeses of all varieties awaiting them.”


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I wanted to help people, so I set up Your Memoir.” Your Memoir offers books


from 7,500 words to 60,000 and even shorter magazine style features that can capture a specifi c event. Marnie will advise and assist with printing, meaning clients can be holding their printed life story in their hands within weeks.


“Some people want their books just for them and that’s fi ne,” said Marnie. “But others want to sell on websites such as Amazon and Lulu and I can assist with that. If your story has that special something, I can present to my literary agent and he will consider it for commercial publication.”


Christmas


delivered OLD WIVES LEES Sisters Liz and Caroline Asteraki from Old Wives Lees are putting together hampers stocked with everything their customers need for Christmas dinner from Brussels sprouts to mince pies, award- winning stilton and a jar of cranberry sauce, feeding six people for £45 through Riverford Organic.


However, don’t throw your shopping list on the Yule log fi re just yet: they don’t supply turkeys.


EVENTS


Thursday 1 & Friday 2 December


Fear of Public Speaking Course Small group, big results for individual approach to help confi dence in public speaking. 01227 720 543


Saturday 3 December Yoga day Bridget Thornborrow, wife of Mark Heap – star of The Green Wing and Larkrise to Candleford – who lives in Deal, is offering teaching for all levels. The day includes lunch and treatments, use of a spa, two yoga sessions and a meditation. www.witherdenshall.co.uk


Every Tuesday Tune in weekly at 1-2 pm on Tuesdays to the Kent Business Bunker radio show, featuring Tenterden entrepreneur Paul Andrews and Canterbury Index Business Editor Jules Serkin. www.kentbusinessradio.co.uk


Thursday 15 December Meet and tweet the Hotel Continental, Whitstable, at 10 am every third Thursday of the month. www.whitstabletweetup.co.uk


Trade with


Tasksauce HERSDEN


With high unemployment and rising living costs, many of us are in the market for a bit of extra work. Time to take a look at Tasksauce. It’s like the yellow pages and Facebook combined. On this local website, busy people post tasks or errands they want done and the price they are willing to pay the “runner.” Runners receive emails of all the tasks being posted in their local area and they bid a price to do the task. To maintain a high level of service and safety to customers, all runners are interviewed.


Give it a go at www. taskauce.com or www. facebook.com/tasksauce


www.indexmagazine.co.uk


Ghost writer Marnie Summerfi eld Smith can put your words on to paper.


Delivering Christmas.


Networking tip


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