A little bit about me

I was born and raised in a seaside town in the north-east of England, but now live at the foot of the Malvern Hills in rural Herefordshire with my husband and grown-up son and our border collie Pip.  

 

When I’m not editing, I like to walk, with or without my dog, cycle, and grow vegetables as organically as I can in the face of the legendary Malvern snails and dodgy knees. I am interested in people, plants and wildlife. I believe we all have a responsibility to look after our world, so I have an Environmental Policy. I'd love to hear from you if you have any comments or suggestions.

 

Indoors, I like reading (of course!) and have recently discovered audiobooks so I can listen while washing up or doing other boring household chores. For leisure, I read mainly fantasy (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman are favourites) and crime thrillers. I also like word puzzles, especially cryptic crosswords, and playing games on my tablet. To unwind, I like comedy or a good Scandi noir on the TV and also watch the occasional rugby or tennis match.

 

Here's my knee-friendly salad bed. It's also quite slug- and snail-unfriendly, which is nice.

How I got here

 

I’ve been lucky enough to be able to use my love of language throughout my changing career. After gaining a degree in Linguistics from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, I worked in speech technology research, first in academia, then for a government research establishment.

 

Moving on from there, I now apply my love of all things wordy to editing, and I get a great deal of satisfaction from helping authors hone their words to say exactly what they want to say, how they want to say it.

I am told it is a good idea to include a photo of myself on my website, in case you think I’m a robot. I’m not too sold on the idea myself, but here I am, just outside my house.