ABOUT ME
As soon as I could write I wrote stories and little plays, which I persuaded my sister to perform in.
Sadly, I didn't become a playwright. Happily I became a novelist.
I grew up in Lancashire. It's true - you can't take the Lancashire out of the girl. You can add to it, and I now consider myself to be a Lancastrian European with strong connections to Manchester.
I became a teacher, having trained to work with infants and junior children. My first teaching post, after a brief time helping out in a nursery, which I loved, was, naturally, in Further Education. There, my interest in Child Development and Further English grew into working with Child Care students, then care students generally, and to teaching all aspects of English, from communications to group dynamics.
I changed jobs and worked for Social Services as a training officer, with care staff. From that I went to Australia - by the usual route of backpacking overland - and found a brilliant job as a Child Care Officer supervising private care of children under five (this before the Children's Act - in England - when it became children under eight). Later I returned to Britain and Further Education, and into management. From that I moved to secondary school to teach English - Language and Literature. So I have worked with small children, families, and students from 9 years old to adults.
All this experience informs my writing. I'm particularly interested in women's issues, women's friendships and family relationships. Much of my teaching, I'm pleased to say, has been with teenagers, who are brilliant, and they often turn up in my writing.
What do I write about? I tell you this in my blog. I read a lot too, I will tell you about that in my blog.
In my other life - the part when I'm not writing, though that doesn't mean I'm not thinking about what I'm writing - I live near Manchester, my husband is an artist, and a Yorkshireman. I like gardening and growing fruit and vegetables, used to have an allotment as well as a strangely-shaped garden, now the garden takes a lot of my spare time. I manage to fit in working with my local charity fundraising group, learning to play the piano (not that well), keeping in touch with friends and family, and narrowboating.
I love dance and have performed modern dance with a small Manchester dance group, done English folk dancing, Scottish dance, Irish ceili dance and any other dancing that may be available. Oh, and reading. I read a lot.