Born in Bristol, UK – I am a Bristolian and my accent gives me away! Educated at a local primary school and then at St Brendan’s College, a Catholic Grammar school, although I was and still am not Catholic. Then at Bristol University, where I qualified as a veterinarian.
I worked as an assistant in veterinary practices in Cornwall, Dorset and Hampshire, and spent 2 years in National Service in Her Majesty’s Royal Army Veterinary Corps, in Melton Mowbray, retiring as Captain. After an unsuccessful partnership of 3 and a half years in the New Forest I was attracted out to Matamata in New Zealand to work with dairy cows for 3 years.
I had always wanted to be an academic, so after the contract with the Veterinary Club was over I took up a post as Senior Lecturer in Parasitology at Massey University, Palmerston North, NZ, and there gained a PhD. Then, after 10 years, I moved to Sydney to teach at Sydney University. There, over the next 25 years, I wrote or co-wrote, over 60 scientific papers, published many articles on education, and created a whole new course within the BVSc program.. I was awarded the University of Sydney Prize in Education. I retired without progressing beyond the rank of Senior Lecturer, as I was more interested in education than in research.
Since retiring I have taught a variety of courses in U3A – the University of the Third Age, written several books on my walks in the UK, on looking after your colon, some short stories and, of course, my blogs. My interests are the Brain and Thinking, Singing, Writing, helping ‘non-singers’ to find their voices, advising on Retirement, and bringing a veterinary focus to human activities. I made an unsuccessful attempt to move to Wellington, NZ. in 2019, came back to Australia, and am now living in Blackheath in the Blue Mountains in a wooden cottage which we have painted blue and white.
Renaissance not Retirement 