Although I was born in Britain, I have spent half my life outside my home country. When I was 6 my family moved to Africa for three years and I think that left in me a desire to travel and an interest in other countries and cultures.

It all could have been different. I studied history at the University of Cambridge, which I still love, and then spent a wonderful year in Italy traveling, trying to learn the language and discovering why Italian food is so much better than British! I then decided to study law and did a crash course (which was awful) and got a job at a London law firm. I can truly say I hated every minute of it.

So it was a stroke of luck that I decided to do a course to teach English as a Foreign Language at International House in London. It was a wonderful experience and I confirmed that teaching was what I really wanted to do. After the course I went back to Italy for a year. I visited Canada and then taught in Oxford at the Swan School where I still have a lot of good friends. From there I came to Mexico and have worked in EFL here for almost twenty years. Most of that time I have been working at the Anglo Mexican Cultural Institute in different roles. At present I am the Director of Project Development which is a new post involving innovation and areas that to a large extent will be influencing the future of the organization. I sometimes feel very Latin and have just about mastered Spanish but am still struggling with salsa and danzón. I have three marvelous children – Claudia, Stephanie and Alex - who keep me very active. Since they range in ages from 11 to 21, there’s plenty of discussion every time we want to do anything!

I’ve been lucky since my work has enabled me to travel a lot in Latin America and meet a wide variety of people in the English teaching profession. I’ve never completely stopped teaching although recently my work has involved administration and project development. I’ve also been privileged to have been involved in writing a number of textbooks for teaching English. I’ve particularly enjoyed working with everyone on the Skyline project and it’s an exciting moment as the book is now published.