Halfway through the nineteen sixties I was born in Den Helder, which is located high up in the north of the Netherlands, to a naval officer and a hospital nurse. Some ten years later my family and I moved to England, where I lived near Portsmouth in Hampshire (first in Southwick and later in Purbrook) for about five-and-a-half years and where, from the day after I arrived, I went to school. First to the Convent of the Cross (1976 – 1978) and subsequently to Oaklands (1978 – 1981). Both schools were located in Waterlooville.

In 1981 I moved back to the Netherlands, where I continued my secondary schooling at the Adelbert College in Wassenaar, not far from Den Haag. After graduating I attended the Royal Academy of Arts [Koninklijke Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten] in Den Haag and trained as a painter and graphic artist. For a number of years I combined a fine arts practice with various part-time positions, but I remained interested in the English language and kept up with what went on on the other side of the water, prompting me, towards the end of the nineteen nineties, to enrol in a study to train as a translator of English.

I combined this study with my work as a secretary. Firstly as a legal secretary for various law offices and subsequently as a secretary and later as an editor and web editor with a large publishing company. After finishing my initial studies to become a translator, I was sworn in as a translator of Dutch and English at the District Court of The Hague [Rechtbank Den Haag]. After which, from 2007-2008, I attended the the Legal Translation Dutch-English/English-Dutch course provided by Chris Odijk in Amsterdam. From 2006 onwards I have worked as a freelance translator and editor during which time I have translated both legal and general texts commissioned by companies as well as private individuals.

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