Personal Bio.

Anne Daly was born in England to Irish parents, in 1969. They moved back to Ireland when she was four months old, and settled close to family, in Dublin. When Anne was an adult she moved to America. She loved Southern California and lived there happily for many years, enjoying the sunshine, the outdoor lifestyle, and the kind and friendly people
(and Universal Studios!)

While living in California, Anne and her boyfriend eloped and got married in Las Vegas at a drive through wedding chapel, in 1996. It still makes her smile today, 25 years later. She had more fun in California than at any other time in her life. Every day was like a holiday.

One year when Anne was home in Ireland visiting family, she found out her mother had been hiding a diagnosis of lung disease from her, for four years. She only had a year to live. Anne and her husband quit their jobs in America and moved back to Ireland. Anne moved in with her mother but the house was too small for her husband; he had to live five miles away in his mother’s house. They lived apart for 14 months.

When her mother passed on, Anne and her husband had to find a home of their own.  They thought about moving back to America, but Anne felt a bit like an ‘adult orphan’ now with both parents gone, and didn’t want to live 3,000 miles away from her siblings. Her husband was also thinking about his own aging mother.

Anne and her husband moved to the rural midlands of Ireland. After six months in their new home, commuting to Dublin together every day; Anne’s husband unexpectedly had to go abroad to work, for almost a year. Since her job had been 60 miles away in Dublin and she couldn’t drive, she had to hand in her notice. Anne found herself completely alone in her new home. Her experience with computers meant she was overqualified for all of the computer jobs she applied for; and her gender meant she was hitting another wall. She was unemployed for the first time in her life.

Anne had no friends or family within one hundred miles. Once a week, she got a taxi to go to the nearest town for groceries. It was a very lonely time. When her siblings called her once a week to check on her, she would get a sore throat after ten minutes, because she wasn’t used to talking.

When Anne was finally reunited with her husband, she was 34 years old and ready to start a family. She’d had a 16 year career and 8 years of marriage, and was now ready for motherhood.  She found out she was pregnant on the anniversary of the exact day she had met her husband, ten years earlier. They had two children close together in age so they could play together, as there were no other children living near them. Because she had no mother or family nearby to help her, Anne had to educate herself about raising children. She studied books on nutrition, parenting, and child psychology and soon realised raising children was the most important job she would ever have. Helping them to understand life became her passion. Anne did not want to go back to work and leave her children with strangers, so she stayed home. While she enjoyed raising children, she did struggle with guilt for not being able to contribute to the finances, and leaving her husband to work long hours.

Her ten-year old daughter came home from school one day and asked what jobs women could do, besides singer, dancer or baker. Anne searched online for a book about careers that was written for children, but found none. She made a list of  jobs for women and decided to make that list into a book; one that would show girls the great variety of important and amazing careers for them to choose from; especially in STEM.

It took five years and an incredible amount of learning and work to complete it; but finally, Careers for Girls was ‘born’ on Thanksgiving Day in America, November 25th 2021.

Anne now lives in a little bungalow, with her husband and children, three stray cats and a big loud dog. 

She is working on three more books in the ‘Careers’ series: Careers for Girls Too; Careers for Little Girls board book; and Careers for Girls Colouring Book. She is also in the planning phase of a book about the 53 stray cats she has adopted, fed, fostered and re-homed, over the past 20 years.