When I had my first book published, I didn’t give any thought to using a pseudonym. After all, it had taken me so long to bring out my first book, I wanted everyone to know about it. It was when a student saw my picture on the cover of a writing magazine and contacted me that alarm bells started to ring.
I was very surprised when I saw your photo in the magazine. You’re remarkably well-preserved for a 74-year-old.
74????!!!! Now, there are days when I feel like I’m 74, and my teenage daughter does call me ancient, but I hope, at the age of 42, I look significantly younger than 74.
I thought I’d look up my namesake and I can see where the confusion lies. The Esther Newton is an American cultural anthropologist, with many famous books to her name. Building on that further, is the fact that if you buy my book, you’re then encouraged to look at others by the same author, who is, in fact, the other Esther Newton and not me.
So perhaps I should have chosen a different name, but then my namesake could be worse. One of my fellow tutors found her namesake was a plumber who could fix any leak…so perhaps mine’s not so bad after all.
Esther Chilton 
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