I’m a passionate independent traveller, and a writer, editor and translator of travel guides and texts for over 30 years. As poacher-turned-gamekeeper, I host a retreat at home in France, on the edge of Fontainebleau forest.

Writing

I’ve contributed feature articles on UK travel destinations and institutions to the British Tourist Association magazine In Britain, and British Airways’ Highlife magazine.

On moving to France, I authored the travel section of the BBC’s best-selling guide- and phrase-book Get By In French and wrote restaurant reviews and feature articles on the Paris region for Time Out Paris.

Editing

At Thames & Hudson Ltd, I edited two volumes in the classic series “Historic Hotels” (Scotland and England) by Wendy Arnold, before joining Maxwell International Consumer Publishing as a commissioning editor, including the launch of a guest magazine for Hilton International.

In France, I edited the first edition of Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls’ celebrated Cadogan Guide to the South of France, and revised the 2009 edition of the Paris Top 10 guide from DK Eyewitness Travel.

Translation

For Flammarion Inc., I translated Florine Asch’s delightful illustrated travel anthology, My Italian Sketchbook, and Marin Montagut’s Bonjour Paris and Bonsoir Paris guides.

I’ve been a contributing translator to the excellent Louis Vuitton City Guides for over twelve years, from Saint Tropez to Seoul, Kyoto, Dubai, Paris, Venice, Rome, the Paris 2024 City Book, and many more. In Louis Vuitton’s Travel Book series, I translated Mars (2021), a fictional journey by French travel writer Sylvain Tesson.

A travellers’ retreat

I host a retreat in the Seine valley, overlooking the forest of Fontainebleau. For travellers following the footsteps of Mallarmé, Cocteau, Robert Louis Stevenson, Katherine Mansfield, Rosa Bonheur and more…

Solo and family travels

Travelling mostly en famille, I’ve spent time in Bali, western Java, Singapore, Australia (nine weeks in a campervan with husband, toddler and baby), South Africa (same, a few years later – a journey across the Karoo, from Jo’burg and the Kruger Park to Capetown, and back again, unintentionally, a story tell someday), the US West Coast, Iceland, Thailand, Hong Kong, New England, Scandinavia and Ireland. I’m a regular traveller to Venice, staying everywhere from a palace on the Grand Canal to a houseboat in a boatyard on the Giudecca, and throughout Europe. I’ve lived and travelled across France for over thirty years: my home base is on the Seine near Fontainebleau, and I lived for six years on a 17th-century courtyard in the historic heart of Toulouse. Regular visits to family and friends take us to the Golfe de Morbihan, the Bassin d’Arcachon, Bordeaux, Aix-en-Provence, the Côte d’Azur and Lyon.