A LOOE author is remembering an ancestor whose selfless act of kindness helped save a life when the Titanic sank.

It’s 108 years today since the sinking of the passenger ship on its way from Southampton to New York.

Emily Thuysbaert is descended from Andrew Latimer, a chief steward on board the Titanic whose job was looking after first class passengers on the White Star liner.

As people were being evacuated off the ship and onto lifeboats, Andrew gave his own lifejacket to a female passenger without one.

Emily’s book ’Mia - My Incredible Adventures on the Titanic’ is inspired by the animals on board the ship and seeing the story through their eyes.

The book also serves as a prompt for young people and their relatives to talk about family trees, says the author. ’It’s important to remember the people in our histories, ’she says, ’because they have helped to shape us into the people we are today.’

Since the publication of her Titanic book, Emily has written another story based around radom acts of kindness.

The hero of the story is a hedgehog – Huffy Puff – who learns about kindness when he ventures into an enhanted forest.

’His name comes from the noises hedgehogs make when they are threatened,’ says Emily.

’They huff and puff to make them self bigger and to sound bad – it’s a funny little noise!’

Emily says that being in lockdown has inspired her to ’write, write, write’.

She’s concerned about the effect that isolation will have on children’s mental health.

’I hope the book will inspire children to think of random acts of kindness they can be doing during lockdown. They can bring joy to someone else who may be struggling,’ said Emily.

’This will also help with their own wellbeing and will help them focus on something good, something positive.’

Emily is doing live readings of her books on Facebook - if you want to join her then go to her www.facebook.com/myincredibleadventures