Family

I live in Salisbury, with a daughter in Manchester and a step family in northern Spain.

Work

My working life has been involved with education and the arts. Following a degree at Bristol University I taught English for a few years and then joined The British Council, working on various arts and training projects in London and overseas.

After my daughter was born I returned to teaching and until a few years ago was head of a large sixth form in a Salisbury school.

Interests

Books, music and the visual arts have been lifelong pleasures and, now that I have more leisure, I am also enjoying trying to tame a neglected garden, braving the gym and spending more time with family and friends. I travel when I can and love walking.

Humanism

Although I was brought up in the Church of England and still love its music and language, I never subscribed to its beliefs and was a humanist for a long time without realising it. Like many others, I first encountered humanism at a funeral ceremony, and it was like coming home to discover a system of thought that chimed so closely with what I felt and believed: that this is the one life we have and so we must live it as well as we can, in all senses of the phrase.

Becoming a humanist celebrant felt like a natural progression in a life concerned with people; I love what it involves and how it draws on the skills and experience I have gathered over the years.