It was the need to escape an inappropriate boyfriend that propelled me into EFL. I thought I could travel to exciting countries and use my love of words, inherited from my doting grandfather, in a more attainable way than by writing novels or being a rock-chick (two ambitions I still hold actually).

Whilst never actually leaving London after all, I survived the next couple of years by working in a few salubrious private language schools, being a mystery shopper and hanging around with bass players, before nepotistically gaining a teaching position at the University of Westminster, where I met Ken Paterson and Caroline Caygill and now hold a Senior Lecturer post.

Over the years I have taught on all courses within the CELT provision at the university, where I am now also enjoying materials writing and course development for the department. Alongside this, I have been involved in teacher training work for the Trinity TESOL and have worked as an online Mentor and Teaching Assistant for the Teaching Lexically course offered by Heinle publishers.

I have done some writing work for both Thomson-Heinle and OUP, most recently the accompanying pronunciation CD-ROM for the Advanced English Grammar Course by Swan and Walter.

My particular areas of interest at the moment are in Phonology and teaching spoken English, and these days I try to divide my time between working and bringing up 3 kids in north London, whilst still maintaining a lifestyle of cocktail drinking, seeing live music and dressing inappropriately.