AN author whose work touched the lives of many aspiring journalists and secretaries has died in York aged 90.

Meriel Bowers, came to live in sheltered housing at Fairfax Court in Acomb in 2000 to be closer to her daughter, Gill Myers who lives in Dringhouses.

In the 1980s and 90s Mrs Bowers wrote or co-authored several successful books on how to learn Teeline shorthand, which offered vital help to people seeking professional shorthand qualifications. She was also a chief examiner in Teeline for the Royal Society of Arts, and taught office practice for many years at Huddersfield Technical College.

Meriel was born in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, and during the Second World War she served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. She met her future husband Harvey, a civil servant , when he came to Dewsbury on a work project, and they continued their relationship long distance while he was stationed in Iraq, Iran, Rhodes and Egypt.

She went in to teaching in her 40s, when she was forced to find full-time work to support her family after Harvey, was incapacitated by psychological illness.

She had to work hard to obtain her teaching qualifications while caring for her two children, Gill and her brother Keith, now a renowned journalist and Harvey.

In an obituary in a national newspaper, Keith wrote: "Meriel had a lively, inquiring mind. She was a particular inspiration to me during my 20-year career with the BBC as a producer and executive editor in news and current affairs. In retirement she amazed her grandchildren by going off on jaunts around the world, including one mad dash on Concorde from London to Cairo for lunch. In the same year she went on a cruise to the Arctic and then beyond South Georgia to Antarctica."

Harvey died in 1989 and Mrs Bowers is survived by Keith and Gillian, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Her funeral takes place at 12 noon tomorrow (25 July) at Holgate Methodist Church.