Carol enjoying the Outdoors.

'Going to school was patchy and I missed out on years of formal learning. Leaving Africa at the age of 16 to return to the UK, I had so much ground to make up and my mind was like a sponge, taking in all that it could. It was perhaps here that I developed a passion for learning - and for education - and by the time I left school, I had decided to become a teacher. But it had to wait.

'I was two terms into a Degree in Bristol when life took a different turn. One of my Tanzanian stories was seen by Jack Wiggins, Editor of The South Wales Echo in Cardiff, who offered me a job as a reporter instead.

'It was a good move. Journalism was a chance to learn so much about the world and to develop many skills. There were court proceedings to cover, local politicians to hold to account and people of all kinds to interview - and there was writing. These are the experiences which would eventually lead to the early books.

‘Although teaching was back-stage for a while, I was still interested in education, in covering stories of inspirational teachers and innovative schools.

'Ah, I see what you mean.'

‘Working in London a decade or so later, an interview with a Family Planning doctor led to being invited to teach teenagers and to my first book, The Ostrich Position. This was followed by invitations to develop and teach courses on sex education and was the beginning of various kinds of part-time teaching.

'Journalism, books and education fitted together and the work of writing, teaching - and learning - continues.'

Carol has worked with hundreds of groups of teenagers in London schools. She has been a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Journalism at London's City University and an RLF (Royal Literary Fund) fellow at Westminster University.

For the last 20 years, she has been an Alexander Technique Teacher, working from home in Islington, North London.