Kissed to Death

Gillian Morton was born in Wiltshire in the summer of 1944 following her mother’s evacuation to the safety of the countryside, but later returned with her family to Portsmouth. She grew up in a family steeped in amateur dramatics and would often watch rehearsals and performances from the back of a darkened hall. The good thing, she says, is that by 12 years old she had seen almost all of Shakespeare’s plays. As an educational psychotherapist, Gillian used stories to help troubled children process their difficult life experiences. Her knowledge of the power of fiction to build understanding of real issues now fires her own writing.Kissed to Death is Gillian’s second novel, set in Portsmouth, where she grew up in the aftermath of World War Two. It follows Bombweed (SilverWood Books 2018), the successful adaptation of her mother’s wartime fiction. She has also published a children’s book, Princess Miranda Butterfly (SilverWood Books 2022), drawing on her experience as a therapist.

"[Gillian] did a great job with the characters and the pre-war feel of the place. The dialogue was effortless and bounced along. As war tightened its grip on Vivienne and her sisters it became a kind of collective growing-up novel, a family rite of passage, and all the better for that. It smelled – in short – totally authentic, a difficult fictional trick to pull off. One of my favourites sentences? Browns and its wonderful cafe had already gone – now just a massive hole filled with rubble, rosebay willowherb thrusting up from what used to be the stocking department...Vivid, witty and altogether fine.”– Bestselling Portsmouth author Graham Hurley