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Above: Charmian shortly after introducing the Anatolian Karabash breed into the UK

Write a novel based on the imagination of your son, leave it in an attic for fifteen years, and then find it’s a best-seller. It is rare that someone sits down and writes a successful novel first time round, but Charmian Hussey has achieved that in a life that has seen her turn her hand to a variety of tasks.      Wife of Oxfordshire Mason John Hussey, her book took 18 months to write, and reflects her love of the world’s indigenous tribes and her concern for the rainforests.      But the literary world is a recent experience. Her career began in the fashion world where she modelled for top fashion and couture houses. She followed this with several years as a student of archaeology, culminating in a D.Phil at Oxford.      For Charmian, Freemasonry has been an interesting part of her life, but it did not start out in a positive vein. She explains: “My previous husband was a Mason and his Masonry was very secretive, almost cloak and dagger. If he went to Lodge meetings I was not told about it, and he was always careful to lock away his regalia.      “It was a subject which was not discussed and in which I was not included. There was certainly no suggestion that I should know that any of his friends were Masons.      “I was very surprised when I met my present husband. He has a more relaxed attitude to Freemasonry and I have been included in ladies’ nights, which I have enjoyed enormously.      “When I meet his friends, I’m delighted if I learn they are brother Masons. The history of Freemasonry fascinates me, and I’ve joined in some interesting discussions. I have been pleased to find there is not the obsessive secrecy I’d come to expect during my previous marriage. But that was in the 1960s. Maybe things were different then and Freemasonry was less open. I welcome the more open attitude now.”      Although starting out in the fashion world, within a couple of years she had decided “to do something much more serious with my brain, and I was bitten by the bug of archaeology.”      She enrolled as a student at the University of London, Institute of Archaeology, studying the conservation and restoration of antiquities.      She adds: “Whilst on that course, I was asked by the British School of Archaeology in Iraq to help with the rescue and conservation of the carved ivories being excavated at the Assyrian site of Nimrud, near Mosul.

     The excavations had earlier been directed by Professor (later Sir) Max Mallowan, whom I had come to know at the London Institute.”
     Nimrud was the place where his wife Agatha Christie had written some of her most famous books whilst accompanying him on the excavations.
     There was a tradition that, on returning to England, some of those who had worked at Nimrud were invited by Max and Agatha to stay with them at Greenway House – their home at Churston Ferrers in Devon.
     Charmian received an invitation. She recalls: “It was a wonderful experience in a classic house-party situation. I stayed for about ten days. In many ways it was quite formal. Everyone dressed for dinner, of course. But we also had a lot of fun.
     “We had picnics on Dartmoor and sailed up and down the Dart with Max at the helm of his small boat. There were barbecues on the beach by the boathouse, and we trekked around antique shops, because Agatha’s son in- law was a great collector of porcelain.”
     She vividly remembers some wonderful conversations with the great mystery writer.
     “Agatha Christie has often been billed as an awkward and somewhat shy person, but I found her good to talk to, and she was an excellent hostess.
     “I had one especially memorable discussion with her, when I was brave enough to say I would like to be a writer. Agatha talked to me about the importance of the mix or recipe for a story – the proper balance of light and dark – humour, mystery and intrigue. Her advice stayed in my mind.”
     After four years as a student, Charmian spent two years in Turkey, working on archaeological sites and involved in her own research project, which would later form the basis for her doctor of philosophy degree in archaeology and anthropology at Oxford.

Photograph by Marie Minchington Above: Enjoying the countryside The Valley of Secrets by Charmian Hussey, Hodder Children’s Books, Hardback £12.99, ISBN 0 340 89349 4. Paperback £5.99.

Not the least of Charmian’s achievements in Turkey was importing a new breed of dog into Britain.      She explains how it came about: “As a child I was a passionate animal lover. Horses and big dogs were my special interest. Being brought up in a semi-detached house with a small garden in a north London suburb meant that my involvement with such creatures existed, alas, only in the books I read and in my imagination. Yet I longed for a real involvement.”      Visits to the British Museum as a child would find her gazing at the famous Assyrian wall reliefs. “My interest always focused on the big, handsome, smooth-coated, mastifflike dogs of war, parading on tight leashes with tails held high.      “Imagine my excitement when, whilst working on the excavations at Nimrud many years later, I caught glimpses of similar kinds of dogs on the plains of Northern Iraq! Descendants of the ancient dogs?      “Imagine my even greater excitement when I discovered a distinct breed of dog in Turkey, remarkably similar to those ancient dogs. Unknown outside Turkey, this was a tall, strongly built dog – mastiff-like in appearance, with short, fawn or striped brindle coat and black mask.”      The colloquial Turkish name for the breed was Karabafl, although they were sometimes referred to as ‘çomar’, which means mastiff, or as the Kangal dog, since breeding had been centred in the district of Kangal.      “During two years living in Turkey, I came to realise that the Karabafl was a much valued breed and that pockets of carefullybred dogs could be found in certain regions. It was a magnificent breed of dog. All my ‘dog longings’ returned. I wanted one. Simple as that! But acquiring a good example of this much prized breed was not simple. Quite another story.”      Shortly afterwards, Charmian introduced the first pair of dogs to the UK and the Kennel Club registered them in their Rare Breed files. In due course, the breed became known as the Anatolian (Karabash) Dog with its own special standard.      The Anatolian Karabash Dog Club was founded in 1968. Unfortunately, the Kennel Club later registered other imported Turkish dogs of no specific type and included them in the files along with the Karabash.      She says sadly: “A misunderstanding of the Turkish language led certain people to believe that a simple phrase which only means ‘a shepherd’s dog’ (of any type) was the title of a specific breed. The registration of a motley crew of dogs, fitting into that general category, together with the establishment of an alternative breed club for generalised shepherds’ dogs, led to an absurd confusion.

     “This mess was followed in due course by the Anatolian Karabash Dog Club, somewhat in the style of David and Goliath, having to take the Kennel Club to court to fight to keep their special breed’s name and standard. But, although the tiny breed club won the day, the whole absurd scenario is now being re-enacted, with the official stance that the Karabash (Kangal Dog) is not a specific breed; that all big shepherds’ guarding dogs from Turkey, including the Karabash, are one and the same breed and, as such, qualify for pedigree registration as Anatolian Shepherd Dogs, with a standard which is broad enough to cover them all!
     “Whatever happened to common sense?” She remarks: “It is 40 years since I first introduced a fine breed to this country. As Patron of The Anatolian Karabash Dog Club, I now find myself heading an organisation, set up for an acknowledged breed, the existence of which is now denied by the British ‘powers that be’.
     “The bizarre story behind these events would make a great book or documentary,” she adds. “For truth can be stranger than fiction.”
     So how did The Valley of Secrets come about?
     “My son Nicholas is now 32. When he was six he was greatly upset by a television feature about the destruction of the Amazon.
     When he was 11 he created some novel, fantasy animals in the round, obtained a UK patent, aged 12, and later a US patent. He believed that, as refugees from the Amazon, the creatures could become ambassadors for the forests, raising money and awareness in an attempt to save the forests.
     “As a dyslexic, Nick was unlikely to write his story: how the creatures had been brought to England early in the 20th century; how, even as we spoke, in 1985, they were living in secret somewhere in Cornwall. So, I hijacked his story! It took 18 months to write.
     “With fantasy set in total reality, and unable to write about anything that I don’t understand, I found that I needed a lot of help – support and knowledge that was given with great generosity by people who are top experts in their fields: botany; anthropology; history of art; pharmacology etc.”
     Charmian is now working on another book and is about halfway through it. Like The Valley of Secrets, it is written for children of all ages.

http://www.mqmagazine.co.uk/issue-15/p-48.php?PHPSESSID=c59cd231db419873a6a6