I was born and bred in Scotland but moved to Australia with my family in 1968 so have been an Australian for fifty years, living mainly in Canberra but moving to Armidale, NSW, in 2017.
My background has been predominantly in theatre and predominantly with Canberra Repertory of which I am a past president, director, actor and a bit of everything (except anything to do with costumes, successive wardrobe mistresses having forbidden me even to sew a hem which they invariably had to unpick). Latterly, due to my long and varied corporate knowledge, I was appointed Rep’s archivist.
My paid job for fourteen years was as an Examiner of Trade Marks in the Australian Public Service, graduating to indexer and trainer in the growing computerisation of the (then) Patent, Trade Marks and Designs Office.
After leaving the APS I joined the local community radio station, mainly recording and producing, but also presenting, radio drama, Scottish poetry and occasional special interest programs.
I also spent many years as a volunteer with the family research team at the Australian War Memorial.
Now retired and living near family in Armidale, I am gradually beginning to take part in local activities.
And I have recently capped many, frequently interrupted, years’ work on a novel about the English portrait painter Sir Thomas Lawrence. It is called A Coloured Canvas, Lives, loves and losses in the artistic world of Regency England and, thanks to technical help from my daughter Helen, and my publishers Australian eBook Publishers, is now an e-book publication available on Amazon, Apple I-books, Google Play and others.
Previous publications are Come to Dazzle, a non-fiction account of the 1891 tour of Australia by the actress Sarah Bernhardt and With Abundant Pride, a history of Canberra Repertory’s enduring and popular Old Time Music Hall.