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Biography:
Much like the title character of Dathan Charles, the Dione M. Coumbe story is full of rich cultural backgrounds, music, art, entrepreneurship - and shades of mystery, intrigue and controversy. Born in London, Coumbe came of age in post World War II Europe. Circumstance and unbridled restlessness resulted in her expulsion from senior school, and launched her on an odyssey, which ultimately took her from Fleet Street to Marseilles, Naples, Gibraltar, Cartagena, Casablanca, Tangiers and many ports of call and destinations of opportunity in between.
At various turns a vagabond adventurer, lithographer, copywriter, news agency owner, Coumbe arrived in Gibraltar as a staging post to cover the Biafran War. Here she was diverted, with a partner, into running one of the most raucous and rowdiest bars in the Mediterranean. Doing so brought near-legend status in ports of Europe and North Africa for her ability to handle trouble from all directions with audacious action and humour.
Always ready for opportunity and adventure, the bootlegging business was tailor-made and Coumbe held the premier position in the wig smuggling stakes too. A keen poker player, she won a barber's shop in one memorable game. The cast of characters encountered during her travels include the famous and infamous, the notorious and occasionally honorable.
Returning to her native England, Coumbe owned and sold numerous businesses including restaurants, trucking, a chain of florist shops, importing, wholesaling and retailing operations. Battling the British Ministry of Transport and Banks, she smashed gender-specific stereotypes and fought - and won - battles against sexual discrimination.
Having obtained an honours degree in law, Dione is now the Managing Director of the company she founded, Book Publicity Ltd. which guides and advises authors through from the germ of an idea to representation of a completed work to publishers and publicity for those who self publish.
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