At 10 years old I won a plaque for an essay about an amazing event in our locality, The Miners’ Picnic. My first attempt had been torn apart by my mother who made me sit down and re-write it 3 times. (She also forced me to have piano lessons and I hated her for that at the time too, though am now, of course, thankful to her). I was thrilled to win with version number 4 but not so thrilled that I felt driven to write any more than the obligatory essays at my high school. 

Most of the girls went off to University. I rebelled and went into nursing, where I discovered I really did have a latent ambitious streak in me. I quickly became a nursing sister in occupational health, writing articles for the Nursing Times, not to mention the in-house factory magazine, and winning numerous competitions in which catchy slogans were required. This kept me in holidays and household appliances for many a lean year, until I decided I wanted to be a medical rep. I most certainly didn’t cite this in interview but I desperately needed a car and saw a route for someone else to fund it.

A 2-year detour into the music business and repping there gave me the experience I needed as well as an amazing and exciting period in my life, then on to the more socially-respectable-at-the-time world of the medical rep. And, dear doctors’ receptionists, that stands for representative, not reptile nor reprobate.

On into another business world – elderly care services – and into the upper echelons of management. Writing still flitted in and out of my life and I found myself writing training courses for a wide range of businesses and copy for their brochures, as well as relevant care, training and business magazine articles. 

I discovered a real interest in the world of health and safety (someone has to be interested, though our country appears to have taken the concept to the extreme) and co-authored a training manual for the care industry.  'Caring for someone at a distance' was commissioned by Age Concern soon afterwards.

I decided that I needed to invest my efforts in paying a mortgage and climbing the senior management ranks and became chief executive of a national children’s brain injury charity, moving on to a portfolio of commercial directorships and other bits and pieces such as consultancy work for the Office of the Schools Commissioner. (Oh – and owning a few kebab shops along the way, as you do….). I also invested time in chocolates and wine, which I discovered is the preferred diet of authors so I knew I was eventually on the right track.

An accident on my wedding day before I got to the church (I kid you not – see  ‘Latest projects’) meant I had to refocus my life. I gained a renewed interest in writing and two stones in weight.

I should also mention that I have a wonderfully supportive husband, Rory, daughter Zoe-Lisa, step-daughters Molly and Lucy, and grandsons (obviously a child bride, I hear you say) Anderson and Isaac; a passion for the Arts, animals, cookery and photography and I live in the Somerset countryside as an exiled Geordie (sort of Wife in the North in reverse).