Background

b. 1948 in Wokingham, Berkshire, UK.

My family moved in 1953 to Newton Stewart in southwest Scotland where we lived on a dairy farm close to the Solway Firth.

From an early age, I wished to become a writer. On settling in Edinburgh in 1976, I worked as a freelance journalist, writing for Scottish newspapers, magazines and broadcasting for BBC Radio Scotland.   Around 1987, as a result of my interest in using words in a visual form, I took up needlework and embroidery and began to stitch lettering with silk and woolen thread on linen and canvas.

At the same time I gave tuition in creative writing in workshop settings and at the University of Edinburgh. After teaching English as a foreign language for a few months in Mantova, Italy, I returned to Scotland and settled with my then partner in Sutherland. In July, 1990, our daughter, Julia, was born. Three years later, I returned with my child to Edinburgh and resumed my career as a part-time theatre reviewer. To supplement my income I took other forms of employment: gardening, assisting a wheelchair-user and ghost-writing the autobiography of an Edinburgh restaurateur.

In December, 2012 I went back to my childhood stamping-ground in southwest Scotland, and settled in Drummore, Dumfries & Galloway.

EDUCATION


1953-1958         Penninghame Primary School, Newton Stewart

1958-1964         Badminton School, Bristol

1971-1974         Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama, School of Drama


AWARDS


1974                   Diploma in Speech and Drama

1980                   Bursary, Scottish Arts Council

1984                   Writer’s Bursary, Scottish Arts Council

1986                   Awarded membership of National Union of Journalists

2012                   Awarded membership of The Society of Authors 

My full CV can be download as a pdf by clicking on the image below.

As an Author

I have always been interested in the power of words and in reading and writing. On graduating from RSAMD, School of Drama and settling in Edinburgh, I looked for a means of survival as I made a bid to become a writer.

I became feature writer and chief reporter for “Craftwork”, a bi-monthly, and wrote interviews with glass engravers, potters, weavers, silversmiths and woodworkers. When “Craftwork” ceased publication I wrote for “Artwork”, an independent newspaper on the Scottish arts.

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