About

I work as a freelance translator and writer in the little village of Bishop’s Tachbrook in Warwickshire in the UK, but have spent a lot of time travelling and living overseas in Europe, Africa and Central America. I’m also an avid amateur potter and feature some of my translated literature on my ceramics (see Iremía Pottery).

I have had a varied career in media, marketing and academia, but everything I’ve done, both hobbies and jobs, feeds into my translation and writing today! Below you’ll find further information on my career history, qualifications and language skills.

Media and Marketing

I worked in radio for five years as a presenter and producer (news and music) for the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) in the UK, Germany, Gibraltar and Belize, then as a drive-time presenter for Beacon FM in the UK.

I then moved into marketing communications for four years, working as a Marketing Officer and then Brand Manager for Valpak, a leading provider of environmental compliance. After Valpak, I took up a position as Global Marketing Communications Manager for Millward Brown, a multinational market research firm.

Both media and marketing gave me the opportunity to use my languages and translation skills generally, but also gave me plenty of experience in writing and rewriting for different audiences and cultures. Some of the types of texts I worked on included: radio scripts, interviews, news stories and feature articles, press releases, websites, intranet materials, branding and identity documents, advertising, brochures, annual reports, presentations and marketing plans. This experience has been invaluable as a translator.

Academia

I started my academic career in 2007, holding full-time posts at the Universities of Warwick and Glasgow where I set up and ran the successful MSc in Translation Studies. I won an Exceptional Contribution to the University award as well as a prize for the best postgraduate supervisor at Glasgow. I taught French and Translation Studies at all undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and supervised PhDs.

I became interested in literary translation early on in my academic career, and published the very first bilingual anthology of Francophone African women’s poetry in 2007, entitled The Other Half of History. Since then, I’ve published a number of literary and academic translations including short stories, articles and books, published by Picador Macmillan and Penguin Books, amongst other presses. You can find out more in the writing section of this site.

I started freelance translating and writing in 2006 on a part-time basis, but made this my full-time profession in 2017. Since 2018, I have also been doing consultancy and research work on literary translation and Africa for the University of Bristol. As well as translating literary and academic texts, I work on the range of media, marketing and PR texts I wrote as marketing executive. I have worked for a number of high-profile clients as well as for individuals and smaller businesses in the fields of fashion and jewellery, beauty, health, food, tourism and music, amongst many others.

Qualifications

I have a PhD and Masters degree, both in Translation Studies and from the University of Warwick. My undergraduate degree in French, Spanish and Russian is from the University of Durham.

I also have a Postgraduate Diploma in Academic Practice from the University of Glasgow, a Professional Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and a News and Feature Writing Diploma from the London School of Journalism.

Languages

I speak French and Spanish, as well as some Russian, German and Wolof, a West African language. I focus mainly on my French for both commercial and literary translation work, although I have translated some Wolof poetry as well as some texts written in non-standard French influenced by the Wolof language.