About the author

J F Wren

<p>I HAVE ALWAYS read. As a boy it was Enid Blyton&#8217;s Famous Five, Tvillingdeckarna by Sivar Ahlrud and Bomba, The Jungle Boy by Roy Rockwood.</p>&#13; &#13; <p/>&#13; &#13; <p>Since then I&#8217;ve always been surrounded by books and I still read every day. But I&#8217;ve never felt the urge to write, and even hated doing essays at school. In 2009, however, I had a serious accident that put me into intensive care for four months. According to what I was told afterwards, I shouldn&#8217;t have survived; all the blood poisoning and organ failure I suffered should have cost me my life.</p>&#13; &#13; <p/>&#13; &#13; <p>But despite the statistics, I did survive. An ICU nurse gave me a guardian angel as a present, and said that I must have had lots of them (and I&#8217;m inclined to agree). After my long stay in hospital, I was discharged and started on my slow road to recovery. My legs had wasted away due to all the drugs I&#8217;d been given, so nowadays I&#8217;m in a wheelchair. I gradually started reading again, slowly at first, and then more and more. But this time it was different. New. There was something in my mind. I even dreamed about it.</p>&#13; &#13; <p/>&#13; &#13; <p>Suddenly I had a story in my head trying to grab my attention and tell me it wanted to get written. I have no idea where it came from, but I knew that the old stone bridge in Hova, which you pass when driving down the E20 from &#214;rebro towards Gothenburg, would be pivotal to the story.</p>&#13; &#13; <p/>&#13; &#13; <p>So there we have it. Something happened to me when I was lying sedated for all those months in intensive care &#8211; a story appeared in my brain. I don&#8217;t know what the kind nurse who gave me the angel would have said, but maybe the reason I&#8217;m still alive is so that the story of the Stone Bridge and Agnes and all the others can be written, what do I know?</p>&#13; &#13; <p/>&#13; &#13; <p>J F Wren</p>