Born in central London to parents who had lived through the Second World War and rationing, I grew up in an environment of make do and mend. My father was best known for being a Court and Social photographer for several major newspapers including The Times. He taught photography at the Royal Academy and co-authored The Traveller’s Book of Colour Photography with fellow photographer and musician, Van Phillips. My mother, also a photographer with an interest in special effects, was resourceful and hated to waste anything. Long before Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, we understood the importance of reducing waste and found novel uses for used objects.
Following my father’s death when I was 13, my mother worked hard to make a life for us. I learned how to sew, do embroidery and patchwork and how to make and alter clothes. My parents had been caretakers to a small, public garden in an old bomb site in Covent Garden and I, too, had learnt the joy of gardening. I also developed a passion for old houses and have renovated several, including a grade 2* listed, 16th century farmhouse near Bristol. I am now a landlord with a portfolio of rental properties.
I trained as an accountant, qualifying with first time passes, at just 23 and eventually set up home in Swindon, Wiltshire where I tend a 1/3rd acre garden with a cat and a small flock of rescued hens.
In 2016, I discovered that I have Coeliac Disease and now volunteer with the charity, Coeliac UK, helping to organise local events to support other Coeliacs, as they come to terms with the major lifestyle changes required to enable them to live without gluten.
In my 40’s I took an Open University degree, Design for a Sustainable Future, which combined elements of design practice with environmental studies. The course looked at materials lifecycles and the impact of industry on the environment alongside developing skills that could be used in the design of both objects and processes.
In my working life as an accountant, I have tended towards roles that include elements of design, project management and writing. Whether that is working with professional designers to produce the Annual Report and Accounts of a listed plc or designing new systems to solve a problem. I have produced technical documents, training materials and internal reports. Using pictures and diagrams helps to illustrate complex information. In all my roles I have worked closely with non-accountants, helping them to understand the complex technicalities of accounting standards and practices.
Outside of work I am often found tinkering in my workshop to adapt or reuse something within my home or garden. Other times, I will be in my craft room making gifts from old clothes and re-used fabrics or cards and decorations from post-consumer paper and card. Having developed these skills and techniques, I now teach art and crafts in the local area.
As a keen environmentalist, I try to garden organically and work with nature. Logs are left to dry in piles providing a habitat for insects and small mammals before being used on the fire. Wildlife is encouraged into the garden with a varied diet of seeds, fruits and pollen producing flowers and a wildlife pond provides a habitat for a wide variety of insects and amphibians.
Not content with writing reports, financial statements, and prospectuses at work, I also enjoy writing literature. My first novel, Mule, written under the pen name of Maze Shoot, is a crime novel, based in Swindon, but challenges the readers’ preconceptions of gender and honesty. Under the name of Zozo Thomas, I have published a series of illustrated children’s stories, designed to be coloured in, engaging the reader with both images of the story and with the words themselves.
