“I love writing,” she said.

“If I don’t write every day, I do get withdrawal symptoms.”

The Donnybrook resident is originally from Burmingham in the UK.

She came to Australia 30 years ago because she had always wanted to move somewhere hot, and has not looked back since.

She loves the Australian climate and way of life.

Jo’s passion for writing started while she was at school, but she spent many years being busy enjoying life before settling down to it again.

“I didn’t actually start writing again until I was in my 40s and living in Perth,” she said.

Jo lived with her husband Bill and her son Russell in Perth until 2002, when they came to Donnybrook.

While in Perth, Jo was the editor for Writer’s magazine, in addition to teaching creative writing in workshops throughout Perth for a company called Readers World.

“In my 40s the best thing I probably ever did was join the Women Writers (WA) society,” Jo said.

At this time, she wrote and published two history books and three ‘how to write’ books, before moving to Yanchep and starting a writers group there.

Jo and her family used to travel to the South West for short breaks.

She was impressed with Donnybrook because there was a hospital, police station, doctor and dentist.

“We liked the area and we liked the wines and the country club, so we thought ‘let’s retire there and we can enjoy life’,” Jo said.

“And we do.”

When Jo and her family came to Donnybrook in 2002 there wasn’t a writer’s group, so she started one in January 2003.

“We’ve still got many of those people who first came to the inaugural meeting, who still come to the group,” she said.

The Writers Group meets fortnightly at the Donnybrook Resource Centre from 3-5pm.

“We have some established writers and some new writers, we do a lot of talking, we have a lot of fun, but we also produce some writing,” Jo said.

“It’s not just me who’s won competitions or awards.

“We all write very differently, but it’s good to belong to the group because we all learn from each other.”

Last year the Writers Group produced a collection of their best work called ‘Tales from Under the Apple Tree’.

“We found somebody to print the cover and we did the rest ourselves – we did the layout, formatting, printed it ourselves and my husband actually bound the book.

“We had 100 copies printed and they all went,” she said.

This remarkable project is to be followed this year by another book along the same lines, which Jo says will contain short stories, articles, limericks and poetry.

The Writers Group has been running for five years and is currently made up of mostly seniors.

“We’d be happy to have younger people, and we’re a bit short on men,” Jo said.

On June 27 the writers group will exhibit some of its work at an exhibition in Capel called ‘50 But Not Forgotten’.

The group has also run a competition for children in the past, sponsored by Judy Bishop’s Gentle Gym Group.

When she is not writing, Jo can be found bootscooting, tap dancing with the Donnybrook Dance Academy, participating in a Living Longer, Living Stronger group or playing golf.

“I attempt to play golf,” Jo said.

“I’ve been playing for a long, long time but I’ve been getting worse.”

Jo’s current writing project is a play for the South West Drama Festival in September.

“I belong to the Living Longer, Living Stronger program at the recreation centre for seniors,” she said.

“I got the idea from there, it’s about three ladies in a gym – it’s a comedy.”

According to Jo, the play is a bit of a farce about love, lies and deception in the gym.

“I had great fun writing it, I’ve got some good actresses and good directors, so it should be alright,” she said.

The play is going through the Donnybrook Theatre Troupe and being performed by Donnybrook actresses.

“We’ll see how it goes in the drama festival,” Jo said.

Jo will also hold some workshops for the Capel Shire through the Active Aging exhibition.

“They have got this grant for Active Aging and I’m going to be doing a couple of workshops in Boyanup, Capel and Dalyellup on how to write your life story for seniors only,” she said.

“People can get details for that from the Capel Shire or go to the exhibition.”

Jo’s last word on writing is that you are what you do.

“If you write, you’re a writer, it doesn’t matter whether or not you’re published,” she said.

“It’s the same as if you knit, you’re a knitter, and if you swim, you’re a swimmer.”