My first experience of ELT was at The English School of L’Aquila, a small, privately-owned school in central Italy. I couldn’t have found a better place to start and in fact I stayed there for ten very happy years. The school funded my Dip TEFLA and actively encouraged me and my fellow teacher, Tania Bastow, to try our hand at materials writing.

Our first proposal did the rounds of the publishing houses for about nine months before it was finally accepted by OUP. This was in the days before Internet and email, and we had to prepare manuscripts by hand, literally cutting and pasting our materials onto sheets of A3 and sending them by snail mail.

In 1996 I decided it was time to try something new and I returned to the UK to study for an MA in TEFL at Reading University. It was a great experience and renewed my love for ELT. I finished writing my MA dissertation whilst working at Christchurch College Canterbury and in Sept 1998 I started a DOS job in Madrid with IH Madrid Serrano (now the Hyland Language Centre).

At the same Tania and I first got involved in writing for Inside Out. Working together by email, Tania in Italy and me in Spain, we wrote 10 resource sheets for the Inside Out Intermediate resource pack, and the Inside Out Advanced student book. Working as a DOS in a busy school and writing my first coursebook was a challenge. There were never enough hours in the day or days in the week. But it was fun and my friends and colleagues at IH Serrano were incredibly supportive.

In 2001 I started on a new project with Ben Goldstein. Shifting from Advanced to Elementary was an interesting challenge and one I really enjoyed. In 2003 I got involved in the Straightforward project and as my involvement grew (from reader for the Pre-intermediate level to co-author for the Intermediate and Upper Intermediate student books) I slowly moved away from my DOS post, first job sharing and then eventually working as a part time teacher and dedicating more and more of my time both to writing and bringing up a family. Writing for the Straightforward series was a very rewarding and enjoyable experience.

In 2006 we decided to move south, and set up home in Cadiz. I first fell in love with Cadiz ten years before on my first holiday in Spain. It’s turned out to be a great move. I now share my time between training and teaching at a local school (Active Language Centre), writing materials and going to the beach. 

My writing life has recently come full circle and Tania and I are back in touch, still writing by email, and bringing the New Inside Out student’s book up to date.