About Me

I live on the Isle of Wight in the UK, just across the Solent facing Southampton and Portsmouth. Most of the island is recognised as “an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and it attracts a lot of tourists from all over the world.

Sea sports, swimming, walking and cycling are the most popular pastimes and twice a year Walk the Wight, and Cycle the Wight draw thousands of extra visitors.  Cowes Week, the Regatta which once saw the crowned heads of five nations take part, is a major event in August and if the number of royals in attendance is less than in previous years, the number of royally rich with their super-yachts has increased.

The Isle of Wight seems to have attracted writers to its shores through the past few hundred years, and apart from the number of writers who reside here now, the Island was home to many famous literary figures in the past including Keats, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Charles Dickens, Alfred Noyes, Longfellow, J.B. Priestley and others.  Karl Marx, who spent a few years here, wrote in a letter to Fredrich Engels, “This island is a little paradise”.   It is even more famous for being the home of Queen Victoria and her consort Alfred, who built a residence here for their growing family away from the stress of the London Court.   Osborne House is now one of the most visited places along the South coast and it remains much as it was in Victoria’s day, a family home full of photographs, children’s toys and lots of love.

But it’s not just about the past. The island hosted the very first major Pop Festival in the UK in 1970, when Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Who, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Supertramp and many others played to over 600,000 people. That Festival continues and over 4 days every year in June, fills the air with the sounds of modern music and the spirit of the times.

The travel bug has been with me since my teens and I was a feature writer for many years before turning to travel writing. At the same time my husband and I were running a business together. My writing moves feeely between destination travel to battlefields, museums to photo challenges.

So I hope you’ll join me occasionally, and I’d love to hear from you if you would like to add your comments.  Otherwise I’ll never know if anyone is reading my rambling thoughts.