About
I have lived in the Cumbrian town of Sedbergh since 1998, having spent my childhood in Kent, and most of my early adult life in or near Manchester.
I was educated at Bradfield College in Berkshire, and then at UMIST (now Manchester University) where I took a degree in French European Studies and Maths, learnt how to make curry and began to get acquainted with the fells and rivers of northern England.
A couple of years after graduating, I started what turned out to be several years freelancing for the BBC, mostly with Radio 4 and Radio Scotland, on magazine programmes such as Today, You and Yours, Good Morning Scotland, Woman's Hour and Countryside in Spring.
In the mid nineteen–eighties I took a PGCE at S.Martin's College in Lancaster. Despite this experience, I went on to teach Graphic Design, German and French at schools in Greater Manchester. I also taught English as a foreign language to adults and children in England, Iceland and Denmark.
On giving up full–time teaching I returned to the media, but as a writer and website designer.
I am a member of the Society of Authors and the Translators' Association. I am Still European. I have survived the Quakers, and I am a member of Upper Eden University of the Third Age.