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I was born in 1971. I grew up in rural East Anglia, in a village of lopsided pastel houses. There were buses to our nearest decent sized town on Tuesdays and Saturdays. At weekends, my best friend and I would take a packet of Walkers' crisps and a bottle of squash and cycle out into the countryside. We went home when we were hungry, or when it got dark (whichever came first).
I tried to be a dancer, but I wasn't good enough. Then I started writing poetry after a knock to the head.
I moved to Leicester in 1990, because it offered one of only two undergraduate Arts Management degree courses in the country. I found that Leicester has some stuff going for it, and isn't just somewhere you drive past on the M1. I also found that bread rolls were called 'cobs' or 'baps' depending on how long they take you to chew. That was confusing.
I did my degree and then I worked as a temp until I found a job. I can type like the wind.
I got lucky and got a job for the East Midlands office of Arts Council England, in the days when it was a Regional Arts Board. I learnt a lot. Then I had a diversion into community lottery funding. We all sat around on coffers of gold. That was ok, but I missed the arts, so I went back.
I did local government for a while, but I'm not great at clocking in and timesheets. So then I decided to do my own thing and go freelance. I went part-time to test the water. The water was lovely. The job went.
I love my work - I feel like I'm in the right place. I'm passionate about arts development, because I believe in what it can do.
Sometimes I get paid for messing around with words, too, which can't be bad.
I still live in Leicestershire with my partner, an English teacher, and my son. Please give me a call if you'd like to work with me. I'm very friendly and I take my coffee decaffeinated. Put the kettle on.
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