I believe everything I’ve done leads to the person I’ve become and all of my work has contributed to the writing I love to create.
Tesco
My first job, was in Tesco, stacking shelves and fending off unwanted male advances. My friend dropped a load of yoghurts on the floor which caused a nasty strawberry-flavoured accident, lane closures and following her sacking, I left too.
Tarts
The Bakewell Tart line of the Kipling Cake factory. I spent many summer days mindlessly taking excess pastry off the silver foil sheets while men, who were paid so much more than us, wafted about smoking, with a spanner in their hands. I purposefully crinkled the foil so it stuck in the machine, forcing them men to do something and us to have ten minutes break. I’ve never eaten one since.
Nurse
Student nurse in London. Post my degree in English I thought I’d do something useful in society. Only I wasn’t very patient. I lasted a year and became a mother.
Youth Worker
Amazing, rewarding work with young people aged 14 – 26. Anyone who felt vulnerable, bored, desperate, we dealt with by listening and pointing in the right direction. It was just great.
Journalist
The best job in the world if you are curious and love listening to stories about other people’s lives. I adored going out and about, meeting tight deadlines and those lovely press trips I could never afford as a single mum! I worked as a news journalist, features writer and finally woman’s magazine editor. My copy has been in regional and national press. For a while I worked on a New York publication, getting up at 5am to file a dozen stories by noon.
Novelist
This is how I want to write, I finally feel I have found my voice and in order to write I have taken up gardening because it leaves my head free and keeps me very fit – plus I laugh all day and create in nature and then on the page.
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