I was born in Leicestershire, attending PORTLAND House school, until I was 15 years old, when my parents moved down to Branksome Park, near Poole in Dorset, to be by the sea,

I didn’t want to return to school, so I decided to get a job, the first one was in a Racing stable at Sandbanks, I had ridden horses since the age of 8 yrs, this was great fun, but hard work and early starts 6 am! And then ‘mucking out’ before exercising along the beach, after 6 months, and with winter approaching, I decided to change jobs and went to ‘Beales of Bournemouth’ where I worked in the Elizabeth Arden salon as a trainee beautician, my parents complained that after arriving home each day smelling of Manure, I now wreaked of Perfume!

I then decided to try a hotel reception position at the Royal Bath Hotel in Bournemouth, also doing an evening typing / shorthand course, and after that, I went on a Constance Spry floristry course, with the intention of starting up my own business, supplying the hotels with flower arrangements, unfortunately, I had a rather bad accident on my bike, which put paid to that idea, and during my time convalescing, I saw an advertisement for a ‘Kenwood’ demonstrator, plus a company car, and Area of Hampshire/ Dorset/ Wiltshire and the Channel Islands, this rather appealed to me, especially the car, as I had just passed my driving test! And amazingly out of 70 applicants and 3 interviews, ( I also, had no idea how to cook!) I got the job, I worked for Mr Kenneth Wood, who was the inventor of Kenwood appliances, before being taken over by Thorn Electrical, I had some very happy times, demonstrating the Kenwood food mixer in the South of England, at W.I’s and stores, exhibitions etc.
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And on the Isle of Wight at a catering exhibition I met my husband Stephen, and we were married in 1965, and we spent the majority of our married life in the New Forest near Ringwood, where our only child, Toby was born, we all had a great love of horses, and as we had 12 acres and stables, and direct forest access, we started to breed horses, and buy youngsters for showing and eventing, and in 1999 we decided to come and live in France, having spent many holidays here, for a better lifestyle, which we have never regretted, eventually finding a house to renovate and land in 2000, bringing 3 horses plus a menagerie of other animals with us, my other great passions have always been interior decorating, gardening and cooking and travelling to discover new places.