I have always had an interest in history, local history and family history. In the 1980s I studied at the Open University and achieved an honours degree in history.

Since then, I have carried out a great deal of research as a writer for both print and online. For 15 years I was a self-employed genealogist which included research for the television programme Who Do You Think You Are.

I have written a book on the history of Kelvedon Hatch, and I give guided tours of Kelvedon Hall which is the subject of one of my talks.

For the last ten years I have organised a local history group, so I appreciate the difficulty of finding speakers and I thought it was now time to help out other groups and organisation by becoming a speaker myself.