As Eleanor Roosevelt once famously said ‘the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams’ and it has been almost my lifelong dream to write novels, but you know what they say, life happens while you’re busy making other plans!
So although I had to wait until I was sixty to begin my journey to being an author, along the way, my life has been rewarded with an amazing and eclectic career.
I started out in the 1980s working for USA TODAY International in very different times before we even dreamt of the possibilities of this digital age. In that now distant analogue world, the newspaper was printed in the U.S. and flown daily to Europe for distribution, imagine that! They were exciting times and I was lucky to meet so many impressive people - even a former U.S. President - and travel Europe working with our international reps.
In the 1990’s my creativity found its vent in building and running a business in Kew Gardens, Surrey, providing products and services to the high-end event, hotel and catering sector. Supplying stunning banqueting flowers to prestigious venues from Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre to the V&A to Kensington Palace, and large displays and plant installations to deluxe London hotels and wealthy private clients in Mayfair, it was never dull.
Having sold my business, my career continued to evolve in the 2000’s when I began working for Premier, Europe’s biggest Christian media company. Being a director at this wonderful charity was the privilege of my working life where impacting lives for good was always at its centre. I met remarkable people from all walks of life – like when I found myself in the reception area talking to Terry Waite and John McCarthy – a humbling experience.
Born and raised in Cornwall (a great place to hail from my granny would say) for my debut novel I resisted the temptation to write about the wonderful, mysterious, land of my birth choosing instead to write about America’s golden age, particularly the exciting and vibrant Massachusetts.
Well and truly a ‘towny’ now, I live in leafy West London, happily catching up on all my lost writing years!
