A FORMER Inverclyde health visitor has the 'write stuff' after penning her second book at the age of 76.

Meg Kapasi, wife of former Greenock GP Mustafa, has published 'The Ormolu Clock' - the captivating sequel to her first novel 'The House With No Roof'.

The book, which has been released under her great-grandmother’s name, Jessie Ritchie, spans countries and decades as one family’s secrets unravel.

The story, inspired by Meg's own family history, follows a young doctor who returns to Scotland from America in the late 1960s to learn more about her family’s past.

It links the Arctic Convoys of the Second World War with pre-independent Sri Lanka and a historic Fife house, as well as the Russian Revolution of 1917.

The mum-of-three and grandmother-of-six used to work locally as a health visitor and lived with her husband in Greenock, Gourock then Skelmorlie for many years.

She said: "My eldest daughter challenged me to write a family history for posterity.

"She felt she knew little about me before I married her dad and although she would remember what my mother, her grandmother, told her, she wanted to know what I remembered my grandmother telling me about her life and our ancestors.

"Like a journey through time, I blended my own memories from the swinging sixties' - hot pants and Vidal Sassoon hair styles - and drew on my knowledge of the 1890s based on what my grandmother told me of the time in the fishing villages in the East Neuk of Fife.

"The Ormolu Clock follows the heroine's flight from the fishing village to the Russian Revolution, then continues to World War Two and back to the 1960s."

Meg says her research led her to both Russian and Sri Lanka.

She said: "My father was the person who inflamed my interest in Russia.

"He was a merchant seaman in World War Two on the North Sea/North Atlantic routes to Russia.

"This inspired me to do research in Moscow and learn more about the revolution and World War One.

"The lovely young Russian friends I met arranged a visit to one of the palaces and a guide who spoke perfect English spent two hours with me and gave me a plethora of information.

"She demands I return with the book."

Meg says she was left inspired after visiting Sri Lanka.

She added: "I followed the story of my aunt who joined up as a Queen Alexandra Royal Navy nurse in World War Two.

"The library and museum staff there couldn't have been more helpful and again I had to promise I would return with a copy of my book which they will put in the English-speaking section of the library."

Meg has shared the secrets of her writing routine with the Tele.

She said: "My kitchen area has a large, low window overlooking the garden which has a small statue of a samurai warrior under a Japanese maple.

"Before I start, I make a cup of tea or if it is happy hour after 5pm, pour a glass of wine.

"I bow to the samurai, put a CD on, usually JS Bach, sit down, open the laptop and I am ready to begin.

"Having written in pencil first, I then transfer the work to the laptop."

Meg is keen to thank everyone who has supported her writing endeavours especially her family and friends as well as Zain, Umar and Neil for assistance with the medical research.

* The Ormolu Clock is available via Amazon, Kindle, Lulu and Diadem books.