Hello, so, about me … I had a relatively unusual childhood, I guess. I was born in Finland to British parents, who were travellers for their work, for many years of their lives. Subsequently, I lived with them and my sister and brother in Indonesia and, then, we moved to India. I lived there, in Hyderabad, from about the age of 4 to about 7 and went to school there. Age 7, I arrived in a boarding school in the UK and stayed in boarding-school world until the age of 15, when I moved to a day school in London and, thence, to UCL to study English.
Early adulthood
I did an office job after uni for a few years and, then, moved to Italy, where almost immediately I was offered a ‘lettore’ post in a university, by a total fluke of timing and circumstance. I enjoyed the teaching and the interacting with students and gained a wife – no, not Italian, British – and a first child. We came back to the UK after a few very pleasant years and I studied for an MA in Applied Linguistics. I got that and we moved to London, after a brief stint in Kuwait. After a few years teaching English freelance in London, I entered the world of corporate publishing, in the meantime gaining two more children and, thus, having three wonderful daughters.
Later adulthood
Within publishing, I worked mostly in the areas of grammar books and teacher training guides for a number of years, subsequently setting up my own freelance publishing-services operation, which was quite successful. In 2005, I largely left the publishing world and worked on my own writing and ideas until 2012. I had become disillusioned with the world of grammar and coursebook publishing and wanted to try and create materials that I felt were stronger conceptually, more rigorous intellectually and that would be more truly of benefit to students. At the same time, I found myself writing about psychology. I had previously been through a fair amount of therapy and, though I found this quite helpful, it was actually the ideas that I developed myself and that I pursued in my own healing that I found the most useful. I explored these ideas ever further and tested them out with those who came to me, from time to time, seeking help with their own difficulties in life.
Now
In the summer of 2012, I came out of the relative isolation of much thinking, rethinking and writing, and joined a community, becoming a researcher and administrator, as well as co-educator and co-learner, at Braziers Park School of Integrative Social Research, later becoming Vice Chair of its Committee of Management. I feel the journey will always continue, inside me in my own thinking, in my interactions with others and in my endless learning about the purpose of life and what it is all about.