I was born in Zimbabwe and before I was two years old the family had returned to Britain. I’m convinced that my love for travel started then. Seventy plus years later I am still galloping, literally and metaphorically, around the world. Literally because many of my trips have been on horseback, trekking over some of the most beautiful land in different countries; the steppes in Mongolia, glaciers in Iceland, valleys and woodlands of France, Sweden and Britain.
We moved to Swansea, Wales, where Dylan Thomas, the Welsh poet and playwright had lived. I played in the same parks and ran along the same beaches as he had and I want to believe that I absorbed some of his love of words and tales. If not him, then Wales itself, which is a land of stories and song.
I was a moderate student in school and it wasn’t until years later that I knew I was dyslexic, something that was not mentioned when I was growing up. Coming to that realization was a breakthrough. When I read I often transposed letters, in fact I still do and it can lead to some funny conversations. I once wrote to a friend about a dairy and he asked my why I was talking about cows. I had meant to write diary. It is not common knowledge that dyslexia can affect so much more than reading. It also interferes with following verbal directions, spelling, reading maps, doing crossword puzzles, understanding jokes. To me it was all a big confusing mess until I taught myself coping strategies. My poor spelling forced me to use different words, ones which I could spell, and as a consequence my vocabulary grew.
Before I found the confidence to apply to college I worked at several jobs, among them were secretary, switchboard operator, fruit picker, house cleaner and as a groom with horses.
Three years later I went to college in London and graduated as a primary school teacher. I taught in Cambridge and Durham in the UK.
After that, I had the opportunity to move to the USA where I earned an MS in Speech/Language Pathology. For forty years I worked with students of all ages who had a variety of communication challenges.
At this time, I was writing short stories for children and adults and had a few newspaper and magazine articles published. I also volunteered at the radio station WBFO 88.7 FM and for eleven years wrote and produced a monthly story, sometimes writing opinion pieces, and sometimes interviewing interesting people. This was in the radio days of big reels and editing by splicing tape. Now it is all on computers which is so much easier for someone who still confuses left and right. I didn’t do too badly though because I managed to win two Associated Press (AP) awards.
