I took early retirement in 2012… one of the last to benefit from a Council package at that time. Do I miss going to work as an auditor? Um. No.

A friend of mine recommended I take up proofreading and editing as a ‘hobby’. I did that. In fact I think I can now safely disclose that I started doing courses on the subject before I’d actually left South Ayrshire Council. It took me about 2 years to complete all the training (which wasn’t cheap) and probably another year or so until I felt confident in taking on a job if it came my way.

Hobby? Proofreading and editing turned into yet another career; I wish I’d done it sooner. Working at home, doing something I enjoyed? I’d spent much of my working life looking for mistakes and improvements, and I love reading. It was a match destined to succeed.

I joined the Society of Editors and Proofreaders and became its training director for five years. The SfEP is now the Chartered Institute for Editing and Proofreading.

And you can find out about my own editorial business on this site.

On top of my umpteenth career doing proofreading and editing, I also continued to write. I’ve been writing since I was knee high to a grasshopper, as they say. There is an entire section devoted to my writing on this site, and you can find in there details of my published novels.