About

I began to paint in 2001 and have concentrated on it ever since, working every day in my studio in Lewes, East Sussex. I exhibit both in the UK and France and my work is collected internationally. I was a finalist in the 2017 National Art Competition.

I was born in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, spent my early childhood in Blackburn, Lancashire, then moved to Hayes, Middlesex when I was eight years old. I was not sent to school or taught at home, and worked full time from the age of fourteen. Fortunately a friend’s parents had a television set and let me watch the plays broadcast on it, as a result of which I developed an obsession with drama, spent all my money on going to the theatre, and won a scholarship to The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London when I was seventeen, afterwards working as a professional actress both in the Theatre and Television for about forty years. At the same time I adapted stage plays for television and wrote, with Edwin Apps, the situation comedy for the BBC called 'All Gas and Gaiters' which ran from 1965 to 1972 and played to fifteen million viewers. I was the first woman to write comedy for television and my memories of this are remembered in the 2016 BBC Radio 4 play 'All Mouth and Trousers'.

I taught creative writing to professional actors, both at the Actors Centre, and The Actors Institute in London, and performed extensively, both in the UK and abroad, in my award winning one woman play which I wrote for myself, called ’To Marie with Love’.

My greatest regret is that I didn’t have the opportunity to become an artist when I was young. However, I realise that although not directly connected, my experience in the theatre and television, both as a writer and actress, has uniquely informed my work as a painter.

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