I was born in Fife,
but we moved about a lot and so I grew up in many different places as far
apart as Swindon in Wiltshire and Glendale on the Isle of Skye and I've
kept moving ever since - it must get into your blood, or maybe my Dad's
side of the family really are descendants of Romany gypsies?!
I have two brothers: Gary is the oldest of the three of us (34
years of age) and already has a head of hair that's more salt than pepper.
He recently got engaged to Sheena, his girlfriend and they live near Uppingham,
in England. They get married in May next year, in Stirling I think:
PARTY!!
Jamie is the baby of the family (13 years!) and a right little genius;
not only is he doing fabulously well at school and winning prizes all over
the place for sports, he also plays the clarinet and the saxophone and
will soon be breaking everyone's ears with his electric guitar. He
and a few of his pals have got a band together, though I don't know what
they're calling themselves - something suitably obscure, I imagine!!
I'm the middle one (32 years) and the only girl.
Jamie lives with my Mum and step-father, Ray, in Gobowen (doesn't sound
too promising, does it?!), near the welsh border.
After leaving Portree High School and saying goodbye to the island I joyfully made my way to Edinburgh, where I studied Italian Language and Literature at Edinburgh University .
I lived in Edinburgh, on and off, for eight years or so. It's a fantastic city and never better than during the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe. Seeing all the buskers and having the chance to go and see so much amazing theatre did nothing to quell my desire to study acting! They have so many fabulous festivals in Edinburgh: another of my favourites is the Film Festival. The Book Festival used to give you the chance to meet and talk to authors. It was in Charlotte Square and was free, so it was accessible to all at no cost; now they've introduced an entry fee, which really contradicts the message of "Books For All". Oh well, things change...!
Uni. was a fantastic experience, not least because it introduced me
to Italy, a
country I have loved ever since. By the time I finished my degree, I had
spent two and a half years in many different areas of the country and was
lucky enough to have met some lovely people and had a number of surprising
jobs.
One of the jobs I had involved working quite closely with Franca Rame
and Dario Fo, within their theatre company, as a personal assistant.
A three-month tour around Italy took me back to Sicily
where
I had spent three months living and working after leaving Rome.
We were there for a month; moving around the island to different theater
spaces. We also went over to Brazil - Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo
- for a month and, although I mostly saw the inside of hotels and theaters,
(well we were working) the day a couple of us went up Sugar Loaf
Mountain was phenomenal.
Taking pictures has to be one of my priciple hobbies. Some of the best photos I've taken (own opinion!) are linked into this page. For colour pictures click here and the for black and white ones click here.
And here's the latest ....
You can look at my CurriculumVitae - it
has to be quicker than a lot of waffle about where I've been and what I've
done with my life! Any comments will be more than welcome and there
is room in the visitors' book for them.
Please leave me a message in the visitors'
book and let me know what you think of the photos or the web-page
in general. It's still under construction, though so don't be too
unkind!