I was born in London in 1952 and spent most of my childhood in the Bahamas and at school in Switzerland before coming back to England to go to college.  It was while I was doing three dimensional design at High Wycombe College that I was introduced to pottery

   

Giant tea pot, cup and saucer

 In 1975, having graduated, I went to New York.  I got a job with Maria Bergson Associates, an Interior Design firm, and more importantly started pottery classes.  I was laid off the job after a few months, but I'd realised by then that a course in interior design was not for me.  However, the pottery classes continued, and I spent most of my time in a studio in downtown Manhattan, learning to throw.

Vase
Eventually through an ad in Ceramics Monthly, I found work as an apprentice in a pottery near Amesbury, Massachusetts.  I spent a very cold winter working there, but my throwing improved.  In the spring of 1976 I decided to return to England where I managed to get a job at Yelland pottery, near Barnstaple, with Micheal Leach.  That summer Philip returned home from six years teaching in Iran, to work in his father's pottery.  We were married the following March, and I continued to work and learn with my father-in-law for two years.  Then in 1979 we moved to Hartland.
An American once said to me of England.  "If you like the weather, you'll love the food."  But I feel very fortunate to be able to work and live in this largely unspoilt corner of Devon.  When the sun does shine it is ravishing, and my cooking is improving.