I am sometimes asked how I started writing.. I don't remember ever not writing. I used to write things
on scraps of paper and keep them in a special box. I had a wonderful childhood, with parents who gave us both freedom and encouragement, allowing us to discover and learn for ourselves. Somewhere along the way, writing evolved, becoming part of me.
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My mother, being born and brought up in Italy was bubbly, creative and eternally optimistic, nothing was impossible, everything an adventure! My father had farmed in Kenya and had a deep love of the wild. I remember being taken to a primrose wood in Kent at dusk to listen to the nightingales. He would sit puffing away at his pipe, teaching me birdsongs, the texture of flowers, how to read sky..we learnt to sleep under the stars, tickle trout, climb trees, hills and mountains, and graduated in the art of dam building.

When I was about 7 I contracted polio. This meant no school but a succession of governesses and tutors whom my brother and I regularly despatched, so because I spent a lot of time lying flat, reading became my escape. They read me yards and yards of Tennyson, Keats, Byron,etc and I used to let my mind wander but was always aware of the rise and fall, the sheer music of the words. My father loved poetry, and when he read, I really listened! Kipling, Wordsworth, Rosetti, Alice Meynor, and even the Cautionary Tales. Eventually at the age of 15 I was sent to boarding school where maths, algebra, geometry, dusty history and French were wasted on me. But in Latin and English I excelled!

Through the years I have had amazing ups and downs, jobs of all descriptions, but always seemed out of step, my ideas were viewed with amazement or derision... even despair! I always had problems 'conforming'. I still do, I like to use creativity to push boundries. If it doesn't work. I learn something!

So now here I am, tucked away in the green gentleness that is the Scottish Borders, where my ancestors, adept at sheep rustling, once occupied a romantic wild and windblown border fort just down the road. I have space, and silence, and wonderful night skies which, combined with the generousity of border folk, is indeed Soul Comfort.

Living amongst the richness of the Scottish Borders inspires me to write in my own style, regardless of fashion. I write from the heart, as it is 'given' to me. Over the last few years I have received awards for my work, and have been published in various magazines and anthologies, the most recent being a collection of contemporary Scottish Poets.