About me
I’m British so blowing my own trumpet does not come easily. However, the truth is that I am an accomplished and successful author, mentor, journalist and publisher with over 30 books and hundreds of articles under my belt. Not only was my first book, French Tarts, accepted by the first publisher I approached when I was still in my early twenties, but I went on to be published by Macmillan, McGraw-Hill, Pitman, Paradigm and Zodiac.
I started Summertime Publishing in 1997 in order to publish my most well-known book, A Career in Your Suitcase, now in its fourth edition. Expanding into partner publishing in 2008, Summertime and its sister imprint, Springtime Books, have published almost 200 books for worldwide clients with me as Managing Editor and Jack Scott, author of Perking the Pansies and other books, as Business Manager. All our books can be found at the Expat Bookshop.
My love of ‘sharing what I know to help others to grow’ has led me to teach thousands to write articles, books and life stories. I teach and speak all over the world at schools, women’s clubs and international conferences and have led both opening and closing keynote addresses for the Families in Global Transition conference. In 2017, I started running occasional retreats that I call Writing Me-Treats. Several of my programmes are available online as e-learning courses.
Now an established and highly-regarded writers’ mentor, I have worked with hundreds of new writers, most of them go onto to publish and sell their work. My intuition and my ability to see ‘the big picture’ and give concise, constructive feedback make me the natural first stop for all new writers in a range of genres, but inevitably mostly in the living and working abroad category.
Currently based between the UK and the Netherlands, I have lived and worked in seven countries and specialise in helping people to write life story, how-to and books on transition and cross-cultural issues.
