Listen, notice connections, find what matters, and tell the story well.
I’m a writer, researcher, communications practitioner, respite care worker and occasional collector of other people’s stories.
I trained as a journalist in South Africa and began my working life as a reporter on a small local newspaper in the desert town of Graaff-Reinet (now called Robert Sobukwe Town). Over the three decades since then, my work has taken me through journalism, corporate communications, environmental policy, social investment, community development and project and programme management — but writing, curiosity and people have remained at the heart of it.
Since making the Highlands my home in 2008, my work has become increasingly local, personal and varied. Today I work independently across communications, creative and community projects, alongside providing one-to-one support and respite care.
Much of my work has developed from my fascination with the stories hidden in ordinary lives and ordinary things.
Photographs, letters, postcards, documents and family keepsakes can contain fragments of much bigger stories. Through research and conversation, I help people explore those fragments, make connections and place personal memories within a wider family, social and historical context. The result might become a written story, a small book or simply a better understanding of the people and places that came before us.
The same instinct runs through my communications work. I help people and projects find the story they want to tell and then find a clear, engaging way to tell it — through writing, media relations, social media, events and other forms of communication. Recent work includes communications and project support for Goldy, Julia McGhee’s Creative Scotland-supported project, and helping to develop and promote the InverCreative exhibition together with targeted social media platforms.
The subjects may be very different, but the process is remarkably similar: listen, notice connections, find what matters, and tell the story well.