Doreen M. Sharp

Doreen Sharp or D. M. Sharp, as she was variously credited, contributed to Swift Annual 4-6 (1957-59) and Robin Annual 3, 5 and 7 (1955-59).

Doreen Maud Sharp (1920-1993) worked as a teacher of secretarial skills at Bromley Technical College and wrote mostly about secretarial work, office practices, dictation and typing. One book was co-written with her husband Gerald Richard Sharp (1910-1996).

She was a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts for whom she did a lot of exam marking. She was a founding member of EAPS—the European Association of Professional Secretaries.

"On retirement, she did a bit more writing, some secretarial and some travel stuff for relevant magazines," reveals her son, Nick. "She did not as far as I recall return to writing children's stuff. I suspect that era was when I was a small child, and I probably was the story tester!"

Non-fiction
Gregg Secretarial Dictation, with Hepple Morrison Crozier. London, McGraw-Hill, 1965; revised as Secretarial Typing. With English and secretarial duties, Maidenhead, McGraw-Hill, 1972.
Handbook and Solutions. London, 1966.
Typing Mailable Copy. London, Macmillan, 1973; revised as Mailable Copy, London, Macmillan, 1984.
Through Practice to Production. London, Pitman, 1974.
The Secretary in Europe, with G. R. Sharp. London, Pitman, 1975.
Beginners, Please! With Pitman 2000. London, Pitman, 1977.
The Professional Secretary's Handbook, with Joan Moncrieff. London, Macmillan, 1980; revised as The P.A.'s Handbook, London, Macmillan, 1983; revised 3rd edition, London, Papermac, 1986.
Typewriting: In Three Languages (English, French, German). London, McGraw-Hill, 1981.
Office Typewriting, with Doreen Trimnell. London, McGraw-Hill, 1984.
Realistic Business Dictation, with Doreen Trimnell. London, Pitman, 1985.
Realistic Business Dictation Book 2, with Doreen Trimnell. London, Pitman, 1987.
Chambers Office Oracle, ed. Doreen Sharp. Edinburgh, Chambers in association with the Royal Mail, 1987.

Note: The poetry collection Tea and Tinnitus. A collection of poems by Doreen Sharp—illus. Pamela Richardson. Lower Gresham, Norfolk, Norfolk Tinnitus Society, 1992—is not by Doreen M. Sharp.

(* My thanks to Nick Sharp for confirming the probable connection between his mother, author of the various books listed above, and the Swift and Robin Annual writer.)