On the 17th of June just gone, I received the very sad news that my editor, Mary Webb had passed away. I was devastated. Mary was more than just an editor, she was my friend. There really was something about Mary; something special. As I am writing this now, I'm smiling, thinking that Mary is reading every word as I type, and already making a list of editorial re-writes. I'm really going to miss that. I can't believe that we'll never work on another book together again.

Mary worked with me on the Alfie Green series ( all nine books). We had great laughs over the ten year period and the odd debate on this and that but it was all in good spirit and the end result being producing the best book possible was always our joint goal.

I'll never forget Mary, and how good she was to me as both a professional and a friend. She really loved the Alfie Green stories and I remember her telling me when we first met that they reminded her of stories she used to read to her daughter, Aoife, when she was a child about fictional gardening characters.

I think my fondest memory is when the first illustrations of Alfie Green came back from Jean Texier. We were both very impressed but they just didn't look like the Alfie I had in my head. Mary asked me to describe Alfie to her. I did. She reached for a bottle of tipex and began to go over parts of Alfie that needed to be changed. Then she attempted to re-draw Alfie. We had a blast of a laugh. 'We can't send that back to Jean' I giggled. 'Of course we can' smiled Mary. 'It's not that bad, and sure we can add instructions too to describe what we were trying to draw.'

And so, off the changes went and a few weeks later, the Alfie Green you see in all the books, came back. Job done.

Why did I choose to tell this story? Because it really summed up Mary and how special she really was. The world of writing and being an author was all a very new journey to me, but Mary guided me along that journey  with warmth, humour, compassion, support and all without really noticing that she had a professional job to do, making sure that I was doing my job as a writer to the best possible ability, I could.

Mary Webb, if I could say one last thing to you it would be this.

You will always have a special place in my heart, in my mind and most of all, in every time I sit down to write my next paragraph or chapter or book. I'll always be thinking of all the help you gave to me and all the laughs and smiles and kindness you shared.

I'll never forget you Mary.

J.