About me

Last updated in February 2018

Key dates

• 1948: Born in Kendal in the English Lake District
• 1959-64: Heversham Grammar School
• 1964-66: Ackworth Friends’ School (Quakers)
• 1966-70: Sussex University; Maths, then Social Anthropology
• 1972: Move to Paris. English teaching & translation
• 1974: Hired to teach English to French university students
• 1975-77: Master’s degree in Economics, Paris I University
• 1976-81: Work for the “Troops Out of Ireland” movement
• 1983: Hired by English service of Agence France-Presse
• 2005: Elected to first trade union mandate
• 2008: Launch of petition & website to save AFP from privatisation
• 2009: Granted French citizenship
• 2011: Re-elected to represent SUD-AFP union

 Since retiring at the end of 2012 I have mainly devoted my time to research on media and advertising, a natural follow-up to my years as a journalist.

Among my other interests: literature, political economy, birds, trees & countryside.