For almost ten years I have worked full time as a poet and, all in all, I love it. It's precarious working freelance and it can be tricky juggling all the different roles that come with the territory, but I'm grateful to be in a position where I can earn a living doing something I love. Details of the sorts of things I've done during this time are covered in other areas of the biography section.

 

My family and I now live near Leamington Spa, close to Warwick, Kenilworth, Stratford and Coventry and not too far from family and friends in the Birmingham area. Although, I often wish they lived closer.

 

Our son got a Masters in Mathematics from Warwick Uni and our daughter, who got a Masters in Physics at Oxford, is now studying for a PhD at Warwick Uni. My husband is still a keen orienteer and when he's not running through hills or forests he works, on a voluntary basis, as an advisor for the Citizen's Advice Bureau. Everyone seems to be happily doing their own thing... going where their interests take them... and that is as it should be.

 

I still get into Birmingham, where I've been Poet in Residence at Symphony Hall since 2005, and to Sutton Coldfield to see family and friends ... although not as often as I'd like to. My daughter and her boyfriend will be living in Birmingham this year so that gives me even more reason to pop back to old home territory. I'm looking forward to that.

 

Well that's about it for general chit chat and background stuff - my life, in a nutshell! A very large nutshell... but then, I'm a very large nut.