Memoir Book Blurb

Stranger In A White Dress

‘We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for us.’
~E. M. Forster~

Set against the backdrop of the late 1970s, the story unfolds of a chance meeting one summer’s night between two eighteen year olds: Sherri, an English girl living in rural Suffolk, and Jonathan (Jon), a newly posted American G. I. from California to a USAF base in the same county.

They fall in love fast, but Sherri, delighted to show off her homeland to this ‘new boy’, soon discovers that although growing up thousands of miles apart, they share dark similarities which quickly threaten to unravel their relationship.

Their mothers divorced from alcoholic fathers, both were raised by abusive step-fathers. Jon’s increasing drug use and resulting paranoia clash with Sherri’s insecurities as hopes of ‘fixing’ him and of the stable family life she dreams of slip away.

Los Angeles and lust; obsession and rage; passion and the power of love: a love affair defined by break-ups and make-ups, a shattering revelation explodes into this already volatile mix, instantly altering the course of both their lives profoundly and forever.

A story of darkest tragedy, yet dotted with moments of hilarity and at times the utterly absurd, this is a story of two young people who refused to give up, believing their love would overcome all.

Not until decades after their chance meeing and during a return trip to Los Angeles in 2013, did Sherri discover that Jon’s last wish had been granted.

It was then that she knew the time was right to tell her story.