Elmer, Betty –  Betty will spin you a yarn

Betty Elmer (b1933)

BORN in Anfield, Liverpool, in the shadow of a certain football ground, she was named after a contemporary film star – Betty Boop!

Born Betty McGorian, her father was branch secetary for the NUR in the city.

She is cousin to comedian Jimmy Mulville, who Hatrick production company creates Have I Got News For You, while her parents were friends with Joe and Molly Saile – whose son Alexis became another Liverpudlian comic.

Armed with AS Levels she went to Liverpool College to study science and worked in the city for cosmetics firm Goya, after a year she moved to Amersham. She met and married her husband, a teacher who eventually became a lecturer at Stoke Rochford Teacher Training College.

The marriage broke down in the early 1970s and Betty looked around for a way to support her family of four.

She formed a playgroup at the old Union Street Quincentenery pool. It was during this time she discovered her gift for storytelling to children.

She was invited by Grantham Library to give storytelling sessions and when a vacancy for work in the library came up, she took it.

In 1988 she heard of the Word of Mouth festival in her native city and was able to take part. On the back of this, she wrote her first book, The Liver Bird, which was published in 1990.

On retiring from the library in 1998, she got involved with Gravity FM and still works at the station, co-presenting and research and production in the Grantham Heritage Project. She was also involved with the Gravity Stardust Puppet Show with Ian Selby.

After going to interview Emma, Duchess of Rutland, she was talked into becoming a guide and eventually, one of the characters at Belvoir Castle.

She said: “My attachment to my family has always been the most important thing. First the family I grew up with, then my own children and grandchildren.”

But she still loves storytelling and even has a coveted Equity card for it.