Growing up in a village outside Leicester, an only child with older parents, my biggest love was music. I played the piano, and used to dream about going to a school, like one I’d seen in Russia, on a TV documentary. All they seemed to do was play the piano all day. Reality struck, and I continued my piano lessons, plus I played in the Leicestershire School’s Youth Orchestra. At school, I wasn’t an academic – my three main subjects were Music, Art and English, which I studied at A level – although I gave up English, because I hated the teacher and he made me feel small. In hindsight, I didn’t have the confidence to stand up for myself.
I reached my aim of going to music college, and studied, Piano, Harp and Singing at the Royal Manchester College of Music. I worked in Music Education for 34 years, latterly being a school’s music adviser. During that time, I empowered primary school teachers to understand how, as non- musicians, they could teach the music curriculum to their pupils.
One of my other loves was art, and when digital photography arrived, it was an immediate answer to my hate of anything mathematical, or scientific – I could see photos as soon as I’d taken them. My first professional job was photographing a friend’s daughter for her headshots, as a professional singer. This success encouraged me to start my photography business. Photographing people; babies, families and latterly, business headshots. Particularly, photographing weddings was a huge privilege – sharing the love of the day, and capturing that love on camera. As a photographer, I empowered my subjects to feel comfortable about themselves in front of a camera.
During my time in education I co-authored a Primary Music Scheme (series of book) to aid non-specialist primary teachers teach the National Curriculum. Then as a photographer I wrote a book about why people needed professional headshots for their business. However, I didn’t consider myself an author, because these books were just an extension of my work.
From 2017 to 2020 when I closed my photography business, I’d published a book of short stories, an autobiography, and several anthologies of poetry. This time, I felt like an author, because, apart from the autobiography, the content of these books had come completely from my own imagination. Now was the time to write a novel, which I wrote and published in 2022.
I recognise in my work that apart from the focus on the actual subject, I have been able to empower others. Alongside my own writing, as a writing mentor, I empower others to find their narrative.
As an author, many of my stories and poems have focused on love (though the latter, not exclusively) – even my autobiography is about finding true love, in my second marriage. A marriage of many differences.
I enjoy writing Suspenseful Romance – where there is some jeopardy, grief or loss, but ‘love’ wins through in the end.
