|
BIOGRAPHY |
||
|
|
We left on my fifth birthday and moved to Norwich. There I discovered museums, libraries, and the fact you could write your own stories. A further move took us to Sussex, which was a blessing as far as I was concerned. The museums and libraries in Norwich were wonderful; secondary education was miserable. Things improved. I made friends, went to a school that suited me, and generally had a great time. It was at this stage I developed tastes in reading and writing that have stayed with me. The same is fairly much true of music. School was followed by three years of College in Birmingham. After training to teach Drama and English, I held teaching posts in Shropshire, Lancashire, and East Sussex before ill health forced me to give up. During the three years of illness and convalescence, I completed a degree with the Open University. When I returned to work, it was as a Community Education Project worker for the same organisation. This was followed by a post with the Sussex Archaeological Society as an education officer based in their Lewes museums. From there, I went to Jarrow where I ran the award winning education department at the Bede Monastery Museum. After four and a half years, I moved to south west Scotland to expand my experience in museum education work. There was a plan behind all this, which just goes to show. Ill health returned (a recurrence of myalgic encephalomyelitis as well as the onset of fibromyalgia) and I was forced once more to retire from work. I have written all my life. Childhood scribblings in little red cash books gave way to teenage angst (I produced poems on an industrial scale). College and teaching saw me turn my hand to non-fiction. Novels, plays, screenplays, poetry, short stories, essays, polemics, and full-length non-fiction works have since followed. It is through my writing that I maintain a degree of sanity. It has done nothing to help me keep even the slightest hold on reality.
|
|