Potted History
USA/UK/France:
My background is in theatre. I first went to work for the Royal Shakespeare Company when I was 17. Skills gathered working along side extraordinarily talented people form the basis of my work as a Creative Communications Coach. I help people in the corporate and not-for-profit worlds become more creative thinkers, compelling communicators and effective team players, in the USA and Europe.
More? Sure!
In the beginning
A Scot born in Japan, I made my first appearance on the exact same day as Dr Who. President Kennedy had just been assassinated and four months later, my dad died. I was placed in a Japanese laundry basket and put on a plane bound for London.
It was the 60s. Childhood memories are a hazy mix of mini skirts, Afghan coats, Blue Peter and beehives. Round the corner was a shop called Granny Takes a Trip. Periodically, I was packed off to Scotland to practice wearing a kilt and be told I spoke like a Sassenach*.
I like to think that, like both my son and me, my dad must have doodled in class. Here’s a sketch he drew of his tutor at Oxford, CS Lewis (who died, like Aldous Huxley, on the same day as JFK).
Much travelled, I’ve lived in many places including Hawai’i, California, Wales, Stratford-upon-Avon and now France.
There are lizards in our garden, almond trees, figs, olives, plums, roses and raspberries. The raspberries remind me of Scotland, where my family farmed for hundreds of years.
I love big cities, dramatic landscapes, being by water, and live in hope I’ll wake up to find Brexit didn’t happen.
(*Sassenach = Scots name for the English. Generally pejorative.)