I began learning the piano when I was five with a local Manchester piano tutor who put me through the first five ABRSM exams. I wasn't interested in playing, as I found it too easy and my constant repetition of exam pieces didn't stretch me. When she discovered I was escaping through the window, my mother bought a two-way radio so she could hear me play from the kitchen and bark commands at me through the microphone when I stopped.

When I was 12, I was sent to the Manchester School of Music to study with concert pianist Richard Greatorex who threw out the exam book and taught me technique and a repertoire of Beethoven and Mozart Sonatas, Chopin Waltzes and Clementi Sonatinas. When he left for a concert tour of the USA, I was invited to study with Robert Gregory, Greatorex's own teacher. He passed on the techniques he learned in Vienna under the Master Theodor Leschetizky and by the time I was 16 I was able to perform Chopin, Liszt and many more composers I would never have imagined possible.

After Gregory's death, I studied with pianists Vincent Billington and Robert O'Neill but instead of a musical career, became a PR consultant, journalist, author and tutor with a scriptwriting MA, working semi-professionally as an accompanist. I decided eventually to complete my ABRSM Exams, passed Grades 6 to 8 with the help of pianists Rowan Thompson and Gavin Meredith (repetiteur at the Northern Ballet Company) and ABRSM Grade I jazz piano.

I participated in both the ABRSM's Introduction to Teaching and Introduction to Teaching Jazz held at Chetham's School of Music. In August 2007, I studied with Susan Bettany at Chetham's in their annual Piano Festival.

As a member of The Alberti Pianists, I play solo at their fortnightly concerts in Manchester and duet with member, Norma Preger. On a voluntary basis, I helped to organise concerts for the patients at Christie Hospital for some years until this event ended in 2008.

My composition, A Little Understanding, with lyrics by Robert Goldwater was shortlisted as theme music for Children in Need and aired by BBC Radio Manchester. We issued packs containing tapes and sheet music for schools as a result of the broadcast. I composed music and lyrics for Sue Townsend's play Bazaar and Rummage at the Manchester College of Adult Education's Basement Theatre and co-wrote English lyrics for music composed by Camerounian singer/guitarist Francis Bebey, while living in Paris in the 1960s/70s.