Biography

North East to The East End

Born In North Shields, I’m a posh Geordie. Proud to be one, but you can’t tell from the accent. I always loved to create, whether art or making up stories. I was a very shy teenager.

My home was within walking distance of the sea. The Tynemouth coast is a beautiful place to grow up. My happiest memory of my childhood is when my father would walk my sister and I back over fields from my grandmother’s house to our home. He used to tell the story of three sisters who lived in a bread and butter mine and who went in search of three brothers who lived down a treacle mine.

Our home was quite a political one as dad was a councillor in the local Labour party. I wouldn’t say we were indoctrinated, but my sister and I were encouraged to sing ‘Harold Wilson’ to the tune of the 9 o’clock news.

After University I came down to live in London, and after a short stint working for the ILEA where my biggest claim is that I saw Ken Livingstone in tights (he was playing Robin hood in the Christmas pantomime). I ended up working in a hostel for single parent families in Stepney Methodist Mission. I began to believe in God. It was the start of many wonderful things coming into my life.

I worked there for 5 years. It was challenging, sometimes fun and funny, but while I was there, I never watched the news. I had enough difficult things to think about. I lived in the hostel for two years and one duty was to throw out the boyfriends who sneaked in at night. It was supposed to be a women only hostel. I also had to throw my fiance out one night, when having indulged in a few beers he made his way across the roof of the church to the hostel, from the resident’s flats, opposite. When we married, we moved opposite the hostel.

I left to have my first child and ended up doing a mural for the hostel. This was the start of many years of painting murals locally. After my third child I trained and worked at The Bromley by Bow centre. We painted murals, mostly for schools or health centres. It was wonderful for someone who had only done a foundation year in art. I’m grateful for that amazing opportunity.

The 2007 financial crisis brought an end to our murals in schools business and sent me into the world of adult education where I remain to this day. I have taught a mixture of things to adults and to families in East London, from art and craft to English and Family learning.