Welcome to my website!

I was born near Tunbridge Wells in Kent and have travelled widely but still live in the county of my birth. I spent several years working as a holiday rep and tour manager, looking after English-speaking tourists in Europe. Nowadays, in addition to guiding, I enjoy working as a lecturer on cruise ships, and have accompanied cruises to Scandinavia, the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands, Belgium, Germany and the Caribbean. My travels have taken me to some incredible places, including the Galapagos Islands, Bhutan and the island of Montserrat, where I was one of the first overseas visitors admitted to the ruins of the former capital, Plymouth, devastated by the Soufrière volcano eruption in 1995 and off-limits for many years. I have family in New Zealand and visit that beautiful country every few years.

I have always loved history and became intrigued by old churches when aged about six: my parents gave me a Ladybird Book on Churches & Cathedrals and I soon learned to tell the difference between Romanesque and Gothic architecture. Historic churches continue to fascinate me: when driving around the country I frequently make unscheduled stops whenever I see an old church! Living on the Kent coast I am within easy reach of many other amazing buildings, ranging from Roman forts to Martello Towers. I never tire of taking people to the wonderful castles at Dover, Hever and Walmer.

Whilst I am a fan of buses and coaches (naturally), I enjoy travelling by train, and have written a book - Single Track Obsession - about my favourite railway journeys. My own place in railway history is that I was the very last person to buy a return ticket from North Weald station when London Transport closed the Epping - Ongar line in 1994!

I decided more recently to write a book especially aimed at rail enthusiasts, and so I gathered together some of the photos I'd taken of various narrow-gauge railways across Europe in the 1980s and the result is The Little Trains of Europe. See a wide variety of lines of different gauges from different countries, with steam, diesel and electric locomotives and read about the history of each line and its equipment. I've included a mixture of photos showing station architecture, trains in landscape and even one or two derelict locomotives! Many of these lines have changed dramatically since the 1980s, and sadly some, notably in Portugal, are no longer in existence.

My novel, A Coach Load of Chaos, published in 2008,  draws on my experiences as a tour manager, although the plot is entirely imaginary! I came to creative writing at an extremely young age; my first 'book', Lambkin and the Men with Guns, was written on the day of President Kennedy’s assassination: my mother supplied me with crayons and sheets of scrap paper to keep me occupied during a family dinner-party while the grown-ups were watching the news from Dallas on television! I often wonder whether I am the youngest person with a personal recollection of that particular day.

Another publication, Thirty-Five Years of Hythe, chronicles the changes  in this Kent seaside town, using photographs I took in 1985 alongside snaps of the same locations today.

When not guiding or writing, I enjoy researching my own family's history, reading, walking, wild water swimming (occasionally with dolphins!) and adding to my collection of squashed pennies - the elongated coins that you get from machines at numerous places of interest!

For details of my work as a guide and how to make a booking, please click on my photo below!