About Me!

1. Portfolio career!

Nursing sister, medical rep, trainer, care industry manager, music business, HR/marketing, CEO and chair brain injury charity, owner of play café/restaurant, gym (looking at me you’d never believe it!) and takeaways, magazine editor and copy writer, book reviewer, theatre critic, singer, awards bid writer, assessor of management/leadership skills, management consultant, and of course, writer and author. A total salmagundi!

2. Your heritage, hinny

Exiled Geordie, happy Somersetian (if that’s a word), Turkophile. If your name happens to be Young, Poxon, Cingoz or O’Donnell, then welcome, cousin – do make contact!

And by the way we have a family tradition of hyphenated first names.

3. Loves and Likes

The requisite writer’s diet of wine and chocolate, travel, animals, lists, baskets and boxes to organise stuff, the arts, cookery, crafts, gardening, foraging, recycling (just call me Stig of the dump), and of course my husband, blended family and the lights of my life: the grandchildren.

4. Room 101 Loathing

Cyclists who creep up from behind on paths and lanes and don’t let you know they are there, pretentious gyms, Twitter trolls, offal.

5. Books

Anthony’s Step-Adoption, All Things Bride and Beautiful (coming soon), 4 books ghost-written for USA publisher, Risk Assessment and Health and Safety in Care Establishments, Caring for Someone at a Distance, Wor Day.

6. Thank yous for getting me and my writing here

Pam Knight, Somerset Web Services, Becky Wright, Dil Roworth, Sue Coulthard, John Dunn, Crimson Romance (Simon and Schuster), Age Concern, Sarah Ford, Viv Streeter, Neil Huggon, all hallowed editors who have published my articles. Oh – and my husband.

On Wednesday the 8th February at the Castle Hotel, Taunton Julie O’Donnell FRSA, Chair of the trustees of Arts Taunton, gave an inspiring talk on the ‘The Impact of Arts on wellbeing in the community’. The talk, to Fellows of the Taunton Network of the Royal Society of Arts and their guests, was intellectually coherent and larded with examples. A succinct account of arts in the community progressed from definition to how we measure the impact of the arts across the wide ranging themes of individual private experience, the all encompassing benefits to business and the value to education. Julie drew in her audience to the ensuing discussion on what the arts mean to them personally. This was a lively vindication of the role of arts in society and a thoroughly enjoyable evening to boot.

Keith Read CBE FIET FCGI FRSA

RSA

About Me!

1. Portfolio career!

2. Your heritage, hinny

3. Loves and Likes

4. Room 101 Loathing

5. Books

6. Thank yous for getting me and my writing here

“Julie gets her message across – passionate, peppered with humour.”

“No hesitation in commending her to anyone seeking to engage the services of a top-quality speaker.”

“The audience described her as completely professional and knowledgeable, extremely approachable and with an easy manner.”

“Julie sets the right tone and is so full of enthusiasm”