Jenny Twist

Jenny Twist was born in York and brought up in the West Yorkshire mill town of Heckmondwike, the eldest grandchild of a huge extended family.
She left school at fifteen and went to work in an asbestos factory. After working in various jobs, including bacon-packer and escapologist’s assistant (she was The Lovely Tanya), she returned to full-time education and did a BA in history, at Manchester and post-graduate studies at Oxford.
She stayed in Oxford working as a recruitment consultant for many years and it was there that she met and married her husband, Vic.
In 2001 they retired and moved to Southern Spain where they live with their rather eccentric dogs and cat. Besides writing, she enjoys reading, knitting and attempting to do fiendishly difficult logic puzzles.
In July 2018 she won the Author Show TOP FEMALE AUTHOR Fantasy/Horror/Paranormal/Science Fiction award.

When Angela turns up in a remote Spanish mountain village, she is so tall and so thin and so pale that everyone thinks she is a ghost or a fairy or the dreadful mantequero that comes in the night and sucks the fat from your bones. 
But Domingo knows better. “Soy Angela,” she said to him when they met – “I am an angel.” Only later did he realise that she was telling him her name and by then it was too late and everyone knew her as Domingo’s Angel. 
This is the story of their love affair. But it is also the story of the people of the tiny mountain village – the indomitable Rosalba - shopkeeper, doctor, midwife and wise woman, who makes it her business to know everything that goes on in the village; Guillermo, the mayor, whose delusions of grandeur are rooted in his impoverished childhood; and Salva the Baker, who risked his life and liberty to give bread to the starving children.
The events in this story are based on the real experiences of the people of the White Villages in Southern Spain and their struggle to keep their communities alive through the years of war and the oppression of Franco’s rule. 


Domingo's Angel

"It was Rosalba's idea. Angela said. "I taught her how to read and she said, 'You should teach the children too, and anyone else who wishes to learn. You never know who might send you a letter.'"


She looked down at the baby, who had finished suckling and was now fast asleep. "Here, hold her a minute. I will get more wine. I see," she said, looking down the valley, "that they are coming." And she thrust the baby into Mike's arms, who clutched her in a vice-like grip, terrified he would drop her. The baby, sensing she was in the arms of someone inexperienced and feeling insecure, woke up and began to scream. Mike stared down at her helplessly in a kind of horrified trance, unable to move a muscle, gripping more fiercely than ever in his fear that she would kick out and throw herself off his knee. And so, although he was peripherally aware of the sound of goat bells and of someone coming into the yard, he did not look up to see who it was.


Chapter 51