Some people say they never planned to be a translator

But I did.

At school we once had to write on the sixth form noticeboard what we wanted to ‘be’.

I wrote lecturer, translator, librarian.

I did the first one for twenty years or so and have been doing the second one now for ten years. I’ve ditched the librarian idea. I love translating.

My most recent lecturing post was in the English Department at Munich’s Ludwig Maximilian University.

While working there I studied off my own bat to obtain the IoLET Diploma in Translation and passed with Merit (2011). That’s on top of my Masters in Applied Linguistics (University of London 1986) and a first degree in Modern Languages from the University of Cambridge (1977). And my TEFL Diploma (now called DELTA) enabled me to work all over the place, from London to Milan, from Munich to Abu Dhabi.

In 2013 I decided to dedicate my working time entirely to translation. I’d already won a place on the ‘New Books in German’ Emerging Translators Programme with Charlotte Ryland and the British Centre for Literary Translation Summer School under the guidance of Katy Derbyshire.

My first book translation was published in May 2015. Since then I haven’t looked back. It’s a joy to make a career change and step into a new world.

And I’m now offering copy-editing and proofreading services on the strength of my own professional practice as a translator and two courses taken at The Publishing Training Centre (2022).

See my book jackets on the Book Translations Page!