A Brief Personal Biography

I was born in England, migrated to Australia with my husband and children in 1967, lived in Hong Kong between 1976 and 1979, and currently live in Sydney. For family reasons, I also spend a good deal of time in London.

I trained as a pharmacist but (luckily for those who might have suffered because of my dyslexia with numbers) gave up that career for marriage.

My qualifications, BA, M.Litt, Ph.D, were obtained as a mature-age student at the University of New England in Australia. My degrees are in Philosophy and English, and my Doctorate and area of continuing scholarly research concerns the work of the late British Poet Laureate, Ted Hughes.

From 1987 to 1991, I was founding Director of the International Student Centre, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney. I also founded the International Student Advisors’ Network of Australia(ISANA), which celebrated its 24th year in 2014.

In 1991, I set up my own business and was Director of Scintilla Pty. Ltd. (an Education Consultant specialising in cross-cultural communication and International Student support) from 1991 to 2000.

I am the author of Ted Hughes: The Poetic Quest , and I am an internationally recognised and widely published scholar specialising in the work of Ted Hughes. My Ted Hughes web pages are archived by the British Library.

In 2016 I was elected as Associate Scholar at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge.

I regularly write book reviews for the Internet and for various magazines. Also, as a freelance writer and photographer specialising in travel, myth and culture, I published widely in magazines and journals for many years.

I am currently a full-time writer and researcher.

Many of my papers on Ted Hughes were first published in academic books and journals. Most are included on my Ted Hughes web pages along with memoirs written by those who knew and worked with Ted Hughes and transcripts of other Hughes related material. An incomplete list of my publications is included here.