Biography

Early prize winning success
Veronica's first prize for writing was when she was about 8 years old in Nottingham. Run by Nottinghamshire's road safety organisation, the competition was for a slogan for their campaigns. Her winning entry was "Be wise and use your eyes".

Not a bad catch phrase for the years to come. This was especially so for a little girl who spent a lot of time writing plays for her friends and teddy bears, and rewriting lyrics of pop songs for cousins to sing along with her in front of patient family members (fortunately Cliff Richard never found out at the time). She also attracted accolades from teachers in her teens for her ability to write fiction with attention to dialect and spoken English.

This sharp observation of ordinary lives is so evident in her writing today. Whether it's a clinically sculptured poem or a poignant yet funny monologue, she captures the sound and tone of the things that are thrown at us everyday.

Radio connection
"I put a great deal of this acuteness down to a long history of listening to the radio" she says. Her father worked in the electrical trade after service in the RAF during the second world war. The family had ready access to all sorts of equipment like new fangled electric fires, the latest in vacuum cleaners that beat as they swept as they cleaned, televisions from tiny screens to the first one in the neighbourhood with BBC2, and radios. All sorts of them: radiograms on which you could also play 78s, 45s and LPs; Bakelite wirelesses now much reproduced as fancy retro pieces bearing exotic names like Hilversom, Bruxelles, BBC Light, Luxembourg; and the first trannies - pocket sized transistor radios which brought radio to a younger generation. When the family moved from Nottingham to Hertfordshire with 10 year old Veronica, they left behind several wonderful period pieces in the basement because her mother refused to allow them on the removal van.

Listen with Mother was probably part of her day but Veronica can't remember that. (On the other hand, she can still tell you the order of Watch with Mother programmes - Mondays was Tales of the River Bank, Tuesdays Andy Pandy, Wednesday Bill and Ben the Flower Pot Men", Thursdays The Woodentops, and Friday was...erm cant remember!). Saturday and Sunday mornings started with cuddly lie-ins accompanied by BBC The Light Programme's Children's Favourites.

After Mass on Sunday mornings the family broke their fast with a fry up and Richard Baker presenting the something like the forerunner of Classic FM. Popular classics would pour out of the radio as her parents, later with their children, tried to finish the Sunday Express crossword surrounded by encyclopedias, a thesaurus and other reference tomes. The smell of roasting meat even now wafts in the memory of Family Favourites (little did she know then that she was to go on a marry one of the presenters from the BFBS stations around the world that linked up to FF). The signature tunes of The Navy Lark and Round the Horn was the signal for Veronica and her brothers to clean hands and lay the table for Sunday lunch.

It was probably serendipity that the school bus brought Veronica home from her comprehensive school in time to listen to The Afternoon Play on Radio 4 with her mum. "In the quiet of home, I could visualise characters and their circumstances day after day. There was every sort of situation described right in front of me, and a richness of language that captivated me. It wasn't until I wrote The Birthday Wish monologue a few years ago that I recognised this inheritance".

Poetry
Poetry had taken hold around 1990 but became more of a serious effort from 2004. She joined Keele Poets at the University under the excellent tutelage of Harry Owen, and quickly was highly commended for her collection of four poems in the National Association of Writing Groups competition. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies; in her copywriting career (see below) she has had poems published as part of publicity campaigns in print and radio for such characters as Postman Pat and Bagpuss among others!

Playwrighting
Her more recent playwrighting took off in 2010 for local community groups, and since 2012 in her partnership with Lippy Logic - see 'Published work' page

Oh and if you want to know about Veronica's formal biographical details: 

Graduated in History from University of Essex 1978; 
lived in Malta 1976-79 where husband Richard worked for the British Forces Broadcasting Service (and contributed to Family Favourites!); 
they moved to Cologne where she taught English as a foreign language 1979-80; 
worked in Sandwell Metropolitan Housing Department in Smethwick just as Margaret Thatcher got her hands on the country 1980-81; 
Wolverhampton Polytechnic ending as Publicity Officer 1981-85;  
1985-to date freelance copywriter and marketing exec, set up Red House Associates with Richard, producing publications, press releases and packaging and brochures for clients in construction, nuts and bolts manufacturing, trade associations, local authorities, leisure and natural scenic areas, and soft toys -  helping to launch a million Teletubbies, to develop the likes of Thomas the Tank Engine, Postman Pat and Bagpuss, and being on first name terms with Sooty and Rainbow's Zippy and Bungle: she trained and worked as a photographer as well.

Member of Settle Poets, Brewery Poets Kendal, Keele Poetry group.

Chair of Settle Sessions - forum for leading poets and writers in the north of England

Lippy Logic - comedy-drama duo with Christine Hooley