Who, we asked, was Nan Davies?

During the summer, she intrigued us with her memories of Cowley village in Oxford - the front rooms turned into a shop and doctor's surgery, the numerous tramps and the rumbustious vicar.

But there was no clue about the author except her name - until now.

Her son, Roy Davies, of Eleanor Close, Oxford, writes: "Nan Davies was my mother. She compiled the diary in the early 1980s.

"She lived in what she liked to call Cowley village' for most of her life.

"She moved to Cowley from Stratford-on-Avon in about 1900 with her mother Gertrude Cox, a widow, her older brother, Merton, and younger sister Gertrude.

"The family lived at 54 Temple Road, opposite what is now the Temple Cowley health centre but was then Whites Farm.

"The wall of their cottage is still visible on the pavement between the United Reformed Church and Temple Cowley library. Mother was a sickly child and finished school when she was nine. Despite this, she could write well and was ambidextrous, the result of being caned for using her left hand. At 14, she had to go to the Employment Exchange as there were no jobs in Oxford, and the family needed some income. Benefit was only paid if there were no jobs available.

"However, there were jobs available in North Wales, so she had to leave home and work in service there. In 1929, she married my father, David Davies, who had arrived in Oxford from South Wales, having been a miner, seeking work because of the Depression.

"Although never having driven a lorry, only a car, he was employed by the building firm of Hinkins and Frewin and stayed with them for about 20 years as a driver."

Mrs Davies, who died in 1993 on her 97th birthday, was a keen cyclist, regularly attended whist drives at the Morris Motors' club and also played bridge at Cowley community centre.

In addition to writing Cowley Village', she wrote several books of poetry.

A copy of her 15-page chronicle of Cowley life was found by Fred Mogridge, of Rahere Road, Littlemore, Oxford, in his family archives - but he had no idea why it was there and knew nothing of the author.