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Who is Nana?
Roberta Simpson is Nana—a Jewish grandmother (she doesn’t look like a grandmother!) who loves the New Testament Jesus. She’s also a veteran storyteller of the highest order, having logged more than 30 years of bedtime hours opening little eyes to life’s biggest truths. Of course, storytelling is in Nana’s heritage. Long, long before the written word, the Jews were passing their stories and traditions in stories—generation to generation to generation. Also, Judaism is in the Bible’s DNA in ways non-Jewish Christians often miss. Children hearing Nana’s stories are enriched naturally by encounters with Jewish culture, history, antiquity, prophecy, poetry, location, and longing.“My trips to Israel felt like I was going home,” says Nana, who has walked where many of her stories take place. Nazareth. Bethlehem. Along the Jordan River.
Roberta Simpson
a storyteller with her own story
ROBERTA SIMPSON is Nana, the Mother Goose of Bible stories, a 71-year-young Jewish grandmother of nine with a deep love for the Messiah of the New Testament, which pours out in her special stories.
Roberta was born into a colorful story. Her great grandparents were the last Raj and Ranee of Sarawak (Borneo). If that’s not enough, her grandmother was the inspiration for Wendy in Barrie’s Peter Pan. Her mother was an actress in London. Her father was a big band leader. Her earliest memories are of World War II’s London Blitz, of running outside after air raids to see buildings split, of being sent to the countryside—like thousands of British children—to relative safety.
Like many married women of her generation, Roberta for decades was content to concentrate on her home and family. She and her husband, Kyffin, raised five children and attracted crowds more—telling stories, serving treats, developing a reputation for playing flashlight tag in the dining room! At age 70, who expects a dramatic change? But that’s when God nudged Roberta way out of her comfort zone into the adventure of writing.
After decades of entrancing her children, grandchildren, and anyone else at the busy Simpson house, Roberta was to send those same colorful stories beyond the house, past the ocean . . . beyond many boundaries.
Truth be told, for awhile she resisted. “I’m not a writer,” she told her well-intentioned friends. But out driving one day, as Roberta tells it, “I heard His voice as clear as day. You can write now.” No need to hear that command twice. She drove home and began writing.
The result is another miracle. Doors open that once seemed sealed shut onto avenues into the publishing world once as foreign as a new language. Her friend Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York, wrote the foreword. Actress (and child advocate) Jane Seymour narrated the CD—as did Christian entertainer Sheila Wash.
Now Roberta’s first book NANA’S BIBLE STORIES (Thomas Nelson) is on shelves nationwide. In this delightful first cluster of some of her best-loved tales, Roberta speaks in the voices of children and animals to woo listeners into the riches of God’s love. Read it and see: children and adults alike are charmed.
Aside for caring for her family, Roberta passes along her great blessings as a volunteer and teacher in her church and community. This year, she was honored with The President’s Volunteer Service Award for her commitment to strengthening our nation through volunteer service. Roberta delightedly offers a portion of all royalties for NANA’S BIBILE STORIES to select children’s charities.
Roberta and Kyffin live in Barbados and see their children and grandchildren as often as possible.
And they still ask for her stories.
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