At the tender age of fourteen, I had my first taste of the folk scene at the Sidmouth Folk Festival and I was well and truly bitten by the whole thing. Before this encounter, I had been sheltered away from it, wrapped up in playing second violin in the Coventry Youth Orchestra in venues such as the National Festival Hall and the Royal Albert Hall. This actually took up all of my time until I got too old for it. Once you no longer qualify to declare 'teen' in your age, you gracefully retire.

I then discovered other entertainment in the form of amateur dramatics, performing many Gilbert and Sullivan Operettas, but sadly I didn't return to the folk festivals for a long while.

Strange how fate works, but it was through the Coventry Savoy Operatic Society that I was to eventually make my link back to the festival scene.

I met a great friend, Amanda, in the Savoy, who was a keen attendee at the 'Peeping Tom' monthly Coventry Ceilidh and she pestered me to go along with her. This I did in June 1992, and had a great time. I suddenly realised how much I had missed it all and that was it, no herd of wild horses was going to stop me.

At the Christmas Ceilidh, dressed as a St. Trininan's, I became aware of a rather nice looking bloke, he didn't even notice me. I had legs up to my armpits and he didn't even look in my direction. After deciding he must be gay, I noticed him cuddling a bumble bee ( there was a bloke in that costume too!) so now I was convinced, until I then saw him having Christmas kisses and it became clearer that he was going to be worth chasing after all. This bloke was to become my key to eternal happiness and neither he nor I knew it…

His birthday in the following February fell on another Peeping Tom Ceilidh, he was involved with Peeping Tom, as a roadie and dep. Sound engineer, the first kiss… A quick peck on his cheek and still didn't have a clue what his name was, or that he was after my mate at the time.

May brought another story, though. I had been out at a Savoy 'gig' and came late to the Peeping Tom Ceilidh. There he was again, he seemed different this time, not shy, but much more relaxed. He came over with his mate and they both asked Amanda and me to dance. Poor guy, he probably wanted to dance with Amanda, but he got me instead!!!

As it happens Tony Slinger was the caller, and the dance began with lines forward and back, when you met your partner you gave them a quick peck. Well ours wasn't so quick, in fact it didn't stop. Call it chemistry…call it super glue…call it what you like, but that was the start of my relationship with the Folk Scene and with Simon too (Yep I eventually found out his name).

We fell in love instantly and have never looked back, and it just so happened that he was really involved in the crux of the Folk world, morris teams, ceilidh bands, music sessions…it was like my whole life had just begun all over again.

Well it wasn't long before I was dancing in the North West morris team that Si played melodeon for, but the travelling from Coventry to Telford evey Monday night was getting too much, so we decided to form our own side, known as Naked Lady. With me as the Forman, Amanda as the Squire and Simon as the band master, we set ourselves a challenge to see how quickly we could get an invite to Sidmouth Folk Festival, well it took two years, and we also won the Green Man award at Rochester Sweeps festival in the same year. We left Naked Lady in its third year, as we were returning to live in Telford, where we now reside permanently, so we rejoined the Ironmen and Severn Gilders, the team that Si's Mom and Dad founded nearly thirty years ago. For the past four years I have been lady's Forman, and now for my sins I am the lady's Squire.

During my time as a Morris dancer, I was approached a few times to call a few dances at ceilidhs. I think they thought that if I can direct morris dancers to do complex dances I ought to be able to call a few ceilidh dances. Well I can tell you I never visited the loo so many times before a 'gig'. It was so nerve racking the first few times, but people kept saying how much they enjoyed it and I started to realise that I might just get to grips with it.

I researched loads of dances and cast out just as many as I kept, but now I am really enjoying myself. I love being in the ceilidh atmosphere, watching people dancing with smiles on their faces. It makes my night as much as it does theirs.

So here I am, calling with Ceilidhography, but that's not all, I am also the bookings manager, band nagger, mother, agony aunt, head cook and bottle washer…and I'm lovin' it.