J’AIME JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023

F E AT U R E
The story behind the story
CHILDREN’S FAIRY TALES AREN’T ALWAYS PRINCESSES, FROGS, CASTLES, AND A KNIGHT IN
SHINING ARMOUR - AND, AS LIFE GOES, THAT TOO ISN’T ALWAYS A BED OF ROSES. LICHFIELD
FIRST-TIME AUTHOR JAIME CRAVEN HAS WRITTEN AND CREATED A DIFFERENT KIND OF
CHILDREN’S BOOK, AS JASPREET SHERGILL DISCOVERS
JAIME’S CHILDREN’S BOOK
STEMS FROM HER OWN
TRAUMATIC CHILDHOOD
EXPERIENCE
Jaime Craven’s debut book, My Magnificent
Memories, may have been written for children - but
it definitely doesn’t have the typical fantasy storyline.
Instead, the book - which has already hit the Amazon
top ten bestseller list in its genre - looks at feelings of
grief within children, and how difficult topics can be
spoken about.
Although mum-of-three Jaime first started writing
her book 12 months ago, it was something she had
long wanted to do. The idea of writing a book had
stemmed from her own experience of a traumatic
event while she was on holiday as a youngster which,
she says, consumed her teenage years.
“When I was 13 years old, my family and I went on
holiday to Sri Lanka in 2004 for Christmas as we had
family living there,” explains Jaime. “We were on a
boat and the skipper realised that something wasn’t
quite right. We were in a remote part of Sri Lanka
and communication-wise, he didn’t really know how
to tell us what was happening.”
It was Boxing Day, and Jaime and her family were
caught up in one of the deadliest natural disasters in
recorded history.
A massive tsunami with waves up to 30m high, now
known as the Boxing Day Tsunami, devastated
communities along the surrounding coasts of the
Indian Ocean, killing an estimated 227,898 people in
14 countries.
“The skipper sailed us out as far as he could because
tsunamis actually travel on the seafloor so the further
out at sea we were, the safer we were,” says Jaime.
“The tsunami went straight underneath us, which
was an absolute miracle. But of course, I had seen
a lot of things that any 13-year-old should not have
had to see because of the impact the disaster had
caused.”
After travelling back home to the UK, Jaime said
she was able to deal with what she had experienced
and felt okay, mentally. But around five years later
she went travelling to Malaysia with her partner
and found that visiting that side of the world
again brought back thoughts and memories which
impacted her physical and mental wellbeing.
“Going to Malaysia just triggered something in my
brain and as soon as I got home, I had PTSD (posttraumatic
stress disorder),” explains Jaime.
“I had it for about a year and I just couldn’t shift it. I
couldn’t leave the house and I just felt frightened of
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