Hello everyone!
It’s Lorraine here. Thank you so much for visiting my website.
I just love writing stories for all of you. Please let me know which ones you enjoy the most by sending me an email. And don’t forget to keep sending in your pictures of your favourite illustrations from my stories. I love receiving them!
Best wishes,
Lorraine D. Cork
Lorraine D. Cork is a British author who writes stories, plays and poems for children, in English and Italian.
She was born in 1970 in a little seaside town in the South of England to an English father who was an engineer and an artist, and an English-Irish mother who was a devoted housewife.
Lorraine had a very happy childhood with her parents and two younger sisters. She spent her days going to school, playing with friends, writing (stories, poems, magazines and plays) doing tap and modern dancing, and acting in a local theatre club.
Lorraine D. Cork aged 10
Lorraine’s first ‘hand-written’ magazine
When she was twelve, her father found a new job and so the whole family moved to the countryside, west of London. It was difficult at first as Lorraine missed her old life and friends, but over time she settled in.
In her new town, she continued with her education and managed to leave school with adequate qualifications. Following this she went to college and then worked for about fifteen years in various different sectors. However, it wasn’t until she was in her early thirties that she decided to go to university, as a mature student, to study Italian and Classical Studies (subjects that she had always loved).
After graduating in 2006 with a BA Honours degree and a postgraduate qualification in Teaching English as a Foreign Language she decided to go to Italy where she found a job teaching English to Italian students.
Whilst teaching, Lorraine founded her own company: The English Theatre where she began teaching English to children through drama. She had always been passionate about the theatrical world, in particular musical theatre, Broadway tap dance and slapstick comedy, so this career change came naturally to her.
It was indeed Lorraine’s fascination with the stage that inspired her to write her first book: Recitiamo in Inglese! (Let’s Act in English) a collection of plays and poems, that she had begun writing as a child. It quickly became evident that her love of writing was the perfect accompaniment to her love of theatre.
Today, Lorraine lives in Italy (with her husband, daughter and three dogs) where she teaches English and writes her books.
Did you know that Lorraine D. Cork did all of her own illustrations for her book Recitiamo in Inglese! (Let’s Act in English)? Yes, she did! But interestingly enough, she isn’t a ‘real’ artist.
Initially, Lorraine just wanted to give her editor some ‘ideas’ about what she wanted for her book. So, she set about sketching whatever came into her head with an ordinary lead pencil and some ordinary white paper. But after a while, she began to really enjoy what she was doing and didn’t want to stop.
When her sketches were finished, the publishing house loved what she had done and decided to put them ‘all’ into the book.
Various illustrations for Recitiamo in Inglese! by Lorraine D. Cork
Plays: Danger at the Beach (bottom left), The Man that Turned into a Statue (bottom right)
Poems: The Maths Exam (top right), Someone in the Room (top left)
“I think the editor liked my illustrations because they have a simple, almost child-like quality,” she told us. “And so, they go hand-in-hand with the nature of the book which is all about children doing things in a simple way, whether it be: speaking simple English, making easy scenery or using second-hand clothes to make the costumes.”
Asked if she would ever consider working as a full-time artist, Lorraine gave us this reply: “I’ve always been creative. In fact, my father was an artist, so my creative side probably comes from him. But I certainly won’t be giving up my day job to go into painting. I’ll leave that to the professionals!”
Lorraine LOVES receiving pictures from her readers. Why don’t you contact her by email with a drawing of your favourite illustration from any of her stories (past and present)? Who knows, maybe YOU could be a future illustrator!
THE BEST PICTURES WILL BE FEATURED ON THIS PAGE!
LEO LA SUPERSTAR! (Italian and English edition)
Drawings by children from the I.C. Mattarella primary school in Palermo.
