A SUCCESSFUL novelist is returning to Malvern to see one of her plays live on stage for the first time next week.

Angela Huth has many fond memories of the town having boarded at Lawnside School in Avenue Road from 1950 to 1954 where she drew inspiration from some of the most creative minds Malvern has welcomed.

During her time at Lawnside, which merged with St James’s School and the Abbey School in 1994, she learned to play piano on the same ivories as George Bernard Shaw and Sir Edward Elgar used to perform duets on.

She was also taught singing by Elgar’s best friend Sir Ivor Atkins and Dame Laura Knight did sculptures in the assembly hall.

Mrs Huth cites her English teacher Rosemarie Dillon Weston as a strong influence on her career as an author and journalist, maintaining contact with her for 40 years.

“When I wrote my first novel her opinion was more important to me than anybody else’s. She was a real inspiration,” said Mrs Huth.

“The first play I wrote was at Lawnside. It was Snow White when I was 12 or 13. Encouragement was the big thing.”

Her first novel, Nowhere Girl, was published in 1970 and her 1994 novel Land Girls was made into a film starring Rachel Weisz and Anna Friel.

Now the second play she penned is coming to the Festival Theatre stage at Malvern Theatres. The Trouble with Old Lovers is a bittersweet comedy about four ex-lovers meeting after 20 years. Mrs Huth is planning to attend on the production’s final night with her husband and some friends and is very pleased that it is touring again.

“It has got a few serious points, but it is generally quite light. It’s a subject that must ring a bell with most people. Everybody has problems getting rid of old lovers, is haunted by them, wanting to see them or not wanting to.”

She recalls visiting the theatres when they were the Winter Gardens for concerts and the school’s annual Halloween party.

However, she was not so keen about walking up to the Worcestershire Beacon or North Hill, saying that the treks were no fun at all except those which took in Midsummer Hill for midsummer parties.

The production runs from Tuesday to Saturday and the cast is led by Peter Amory, who is best known as Emmerdale bad boy Chris Tate, and former Doctor Who companion Nicola Bryant.

For more information and tickets, go to malvern-theatres.co.uk or call the box office on 01684 892277.