A NOVICE writer has taken it upon herself to write a book in memory of her late husband – almost 50 years to the day that she lost him.

Carol Kennedy, 89, is now a published author after putting together a collection of poems and short stories to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society, after losing her husband Ken to the disease in 1965.

She wanted a fitting tribute to his memory and what better way than to put it all into words.

Pebble in the Pond is a memoir of prose and poetry, the proceeds of which will all be given to the charity.

Born in 1926, Mrs Kennedy married Ken in 1950. Together they had three daughters: Tessa, Val and Jane.

After his death she retrained as a social worker, practising in Kent, before moving to Brambridge in 1976.

She wrote the collection at her riverside home in Kiln Lane.

“The joke was that I went to a 90th birthday party of a friend last year and to mark it, she jumped out of an aeroplane,” she said. “I thought I couldn’t do that in 100 years so it was suggested I do this.

“I had the idea of putting together a small collection of poems and stories to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society, of which I have been a member since 1965,” she added. “My husband died of MS in that year, so 2015 will be the fiftieth anniversary of his death. The same year will also mark the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of a branch of the MS Society in Bexley, where he worked as a family doctor. Many years ago now, the branch adapted a seaside bungalow in Eastbourne for their disabled members, and named it Kennedy Cottage.

“My hope is that any profits from the sale of this little book will contribute both to research into MS and to the maintenance of Kennedy Cottage, which, together with the now renamed Bexley and Dartford Branch, has a lasting place in my heart.”

To buy the book visit apebbleinthepond.co.uk/the-book.