I’m Val Dobson, and as described in About the Elfin Diary, I published ten years of the Diary, after Caroline Heaney’s death in 2012.

In the late 90s, I lived in Lancashire with my husband and children. We were Pagan and published The Little Red Book – a quarterly directory of Pagan resources and events in the UK. That eventually led us to printing all kinds of books and small magazines on ‘alternative’ subjects, and we became Oakleaf Design & Print.

The Little Red Book was how we got to know Caroline; her Elfin Diary, with its astrological listings and ‘alternative’ articles, was very relevant and so we listed it. At the time, she was having problems with finding people to layout the Diary on a computer, as the printers wanted. She was not only technophobic, but very hard to work with and nobody stayed around for more than a couple of years. But, somehow, we got along, and I ended up doing the computer stuff, which eventually included designing and looking after the Elfin Diary website.

I was also an astrologer (I’m no longer practising but still interested in it) and an active member of the Astrological Association for many years, editing their members’ magazine and looking after their website. You can read all about it here.

After 21 years in Scotland, I’m back in Lancashire. In between coping with health problems (too boring to write about), I keep myself busy not jut adding old Elfin Diary articles to this site, but also using my writing, layout and editing skills to help people publish their books. If you have something you want to get into print, visit my site for details of what I can do for you.