I'd had an interest in research ever since I was old enough to read my Dad's Sunday newspaper, which had a general knowledge crossword in it.   I used to spend the entire week looking up the answers to the clues.   The desire to research and find answers has never left me and as I'm an Aries and love to show off, I started putting my findings down on paper and sending the results off to magazines.   I actually started writing these general interest articles when my first child was born.   I found that a baby + a full-time job + charity work simply didn't keep me busy enough! When I wrote my very first article I joined a writers' group, principally to get an unbiased opinion on whether my work was any good or not.   I've always been enormously glad I did, because they numbered several professional writers in the group who helped and encouraged the rest of us to a huge extent.   Those professionals are the major influences in my writing life;  I learned so much from them and still apply those lessons in my writing life, not least of which is to help aspiring writers as much as I can.

Two co-authored books published; innumerable general interest articles published in UK and Southern Africa.