I hope I can walk down the red carpet at the premiere

"Horace always rather enjoyed relating about his PoW days.

It was with satisfaction that he was able to outwit the German guards and sneak out.

He spoke about the despair of some of the men around him. They would sometimes turn to Horace and say, "God will save us, won't he?'' and Horace would say, "No he won't''.

He was very truthful. He would try to comfort them, but he wasn't going to flower it up. There were men in there that committed suicide.

The German guards would tell them the English were going to surrender, that the Germans would invade England and that all the women there would be raped.

Horace went to work. Many of the men wouldn't work for the Germans, but Horace would. He worked in a marble quarry and he found out that the marble was for the dead Germans' headstones for the graves. He rather liked the idea of that.

He got to know the quarry owner and he had a daughter who could speak English. She worked as an interpreter.

They got friendly and that's the romance part of it all.

Most nights he would bring supplies back. He used to raid rabbit hutches and chicken pens and he would bring them back to the cook.

He told me bits of his story over the years and I always said he should write it down.

We moved to Spain and lived there for about 25 years. He became ill and he was rushed to hospital. I was told he wasn't going to pull through a couple of times, but he did.

But he lost the use of his legs. It was strange, because he wasn't paralysed, but his legs were just like jelly. It was the anaemia, which affected his kidneys.

We moved from our house to a retirement complex. Not a home, but a place where lots of other older couples lived, which had lifts and big wide doors, so that he could get around in his wheelchair.

He got chatting with this author there and told him he had a really good story to tell, but that he just couldn't write it.

He introduced us to Ken, the ghost-writer. When he spoke to Horace and heard his story, he just couldn't resist it. He just had to do it.

When I read the first proof I couldn't believe what he had done. I thought it was wonderful. It was just Horace.

Ken said he got into Horace's head, and that he felt like he was him.

The book is rather racy. Ken said a bit of sex sells.

I think Horace was meant to write this story, I really do.

I think that is why he pulled through. He kept going until it was written and published.

I was interviewed before about the story when we lived in the Costa Brava. They asked me how I felt about this story being all about his exploits with this other girl. I just told them that it was before my time, and I was only 14 years old at the time.

What he did in his past is nothing for me to worry about really. We were together for 40 years, married for 35.

He died three years ago and I moved back to Leicestershire 18 months ago. I couldn't live in Spain without him.

I know Ken has said about me being there to walk down the red carpet at the premiere of the film. I just hope it happens.

I keep wondering, 'will something go wrong?' with the film. There was an occasion when Channel Five wanted to make a film, but dropped it in the end. They were going to take him on the train to Poland and film him.

I had the feeling that after all this time everyone had had enough of Second World War stories, but the Hollywood people are quite keen. They think it's great. I think it's the love story that gets them. And the fact that it is all true.

I'm a bit nervous about it being a made into a film, but really quite pleased. I hope I live long enough to see it.

I suppose they will change the story in some respects, but I suppose I hope they keep it as near to Horace's story as possible. It really is quite a tale after all."