About me...

I have been passionate about reading and writing from a very young age. I saved up my pocket money to buy Enid Blyton books and quickly progressed from The Faraway Tree to the Mallory Towers via The Secret Seven and Famous Five. After that I read anything I could get my hands on. My school essays were always far too long and rambling. I had not yet learnt to edit.

When I went away to a convent boarding school at the age of 10, my ability to tell stories took on a new importance. "Lights out and no talking" was far too early in the evening for the girls in my dormitory, which included my younger sister Christine.

  I used to entertain the girls by reciting stories from books I had just read, or making them up on the spur of the moment. I used to talk for hours and was constantly in trouble with Sister Joan of Arc. My essays at this time got even longer.

In later years I still read voraciously and fairly indiscriminately. One day I would read a worthy classic, the next day it would be chick-Lit, after that I would pick up something by Simone de Beauvoir and the next it would be John Grisham. I am an addict and will read almost anything.

Books have got me through some good times and bad times. Writing has too. Writing has the ability to take you to a different place and a million miles away from the pile of ironing, a dull TV schedule or even a painful divorce. In the middle of the worst moments of my life when I felt I was living in a very poorly scripted soap opera I took up writing a fictional journal and used it to write my own happy ending. It was better than "therapy" and also the best cure for insomnia. Well, OK, actually it isn't a cure at all, but it does give you something useful to do with your brain while you are trying to get to sleep. Even now I plot out my stories every night in my head and then type up the "transcript" the next day. Luckily I have a good memory.

I grew up in West Sussex, although I have also lived in South Wales and London. I moved to the isle of Whalsay, one of the smaller Shetland Isles, with a population of around 1000, and lived there for nearly seven years. Whalsay lives up to its reputation as Da Bonny Isle and it was a brilliant place to live and raise a family. I am married to Kevin Valente, a hard working social worker, sport addict and brilliant dad to my son Ian. I have another grown-up son, Franklin, who lives in Chichester. My boys are, quite simply, the best things that ever happened to me. They are a huge source of pride and inspiration to me.

Kevin, Ian and I moved to Maynooth in County Kildare earlier this year. Kevin now works in Dublin and I am studying and looking for work. Not easy in the current economic climate, but I remain optimistic. Ireland is lovely, and given my Irish heritage (and passport) it is like coming home at last.

I set up this site as a way of sharing some of my writing with friends, family and anyone else who discovers it on the web. I am studying for a Masters in Professional Writing with University College Falmouth.