Speaks About...

• Being literate - able to read, write, spell and articulate clearly, has enabled me to:
   - develop my imagination and creativity through fiction,  - develop my love for languages through vocabulary; idiom; nuance and musicality; - develop as a learner and qualify as a teacher through university courses

• I had to write the answers by hand for all my exams and courses including exam dissertations.

• Putting words down on paper has a different energy to typing on the screen - there is a completely different connection between mind and body.

• Giving the gift of writing and literacy to young learners has enable them to achieve incredible results, beyond what they thought possible, even during a global pandemic.

Speaks About...

• From a very young age I loved to write and read stories. Enid Blyton was one of my favourite authors and she taught me what it was to escape into a magical world of fun, adventure and mystical fairylands. I had a younger brother who didn’t enjoy writing, but he loved to listen to me sitting and reading bedtime stories. Who knew that back then at only five years old, I was already in practice for my current profession as a hypnotherapist? In my current role I write lots of what we call ‘language patterns’ or ‘scripts’. These are guided relaxations designed to help enable our clients to go into a deep and relaxing trance. Not a funky chicken type trance! A lot of my professional colleagues don’t have the skills to write their own language patterns and so this has given me the ability to add an extra income to my little business by selling my own on to others. As well as this I have been really fortunate to take part in writing several books and booking a number one bestselling author with each of them. Each one has been a different genre; Autobiography, Self-help, and a psychological thriller. I remember sat in primary school with my fountain pen all excited trying to copy the fancy letters from the board, and ended up with ink splodges all over my paper. Back then it just felt like a bit of fun and experimentation, but as an adult I know many people who struggle with writing, including my brother, who as an adult was diagnosed with dyslexia. It makes me sad that people gave up on him when he was a child. He is currently in a minimum wage job and lacks the confidence to do more, even though I know he is absolutely amazing and a beautifully kind human being. Contrary to my brother, my best friend has dyslexia and was provided with support from an early age. She has a Degree, a Masters Degree and a PhD. I do wonder how different my brothers life would have been if only he had been taught to read and write well at school.

Speaks About...

• One of my clearest, and most unpleasant, memories of school is being made to stand at the front of the classroom following a spelling test in which I’d got nothing right. The only other memory of being asked to stand at the front of the class was following the completion of creative writing homework. Despite not being able to spell, I worked hard to master the act of writing and the more I could control my hand to hold the pen and its movement across paper, the more I could keep up with my imagination and deepen the connection with my creativity.
• Today I’m a published and commissioned writer. I’ve written for the stage, worked for years as a travel writer and, as well as my creative work, I write business plans and company strategies. None of which I could have achieved if I’d listened to the teacher who said I couldn't spell, but listened instead to the teacher who recognised I could write.
• I use a computer a lot these days, but it all starts with a pen and paper and the direct line of communication this gives me to my authentic voice and the confidence I find there. I write all of the notes for my books, plays and business plans by hand first, as well as a personal journal.
• Today there are many ways to creatively express yourself that weren’t available to me growing up, some of which I now use. But nothing gives me that direct, confident line of connection to my authentic creative voice than handwriting. And I couldn’t have achieved anything I have in life since leaving school unless I’d learned to write.
• If you can’t write by hand, you can’t take control of your own story, which means someone else will do it for you. Words on a screen disappear into a transient digital world. But your words written on paper are your mark in the world for future generations to know who you are, what you had to say and the story you have to tell.

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• Handwriting has kept me in touch with who I am and what I feel from an early age. Whatever I write, whether book or letter, first goes through process of being handwritten. It might sound tedious but I am able to get to the root of what I truly want to say when words flow through the pencil in my hand. Writing by hand offers connectedness to brain, heart and soul in a way that typing on keyboard cannot, since all that pours out flows directly through body as words come to life on paper. So far, none of my books have proved best sellers but they have given me countless opportunities which would not have otherwise existed. Writing by hand goes much deeper into the heart. It sometimes makes me scream with frustration, sob or laugh but peels off layers of the crust we build around ourselves. I attribute my success of being featured regularly in national mags and newspapers to my handwriting skills. Writing by hand makes me unafraid to spill my real self when writing articles. What the world wants is the human touch and originality. The digital world creates same old same old writers who do not know how to write from their core. Handwriting is of such importance to me, I taught my daughter to follow in my footsteps. I handwrite perhaps 6 hours every single day so mine often looks like scribble. When I see hers, I feel I am looking at an arm form in words. Handwriting is an art form. One which is slowly being lost. Fortunately, we now have specialist teachers in this area - And not before time.

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• Writing by hand shows that you care. A carefully handwritten & beautifully presented note means so much more than a generic line typed on a piece of paper. I create and sell board games and include a handwritten note with every order I send out. It helps me to connect to my customers and let them know that they are important to me. I write a lot in my work. I've written a book, many articles and I blog regularly. Ideas come to me at funny times and in funny places, so I always have a notebook to hand. I get ideas for new board games - disjointed ideas that need to be captured. I often sketch drawings for game components alongside the notes I'm writing. Writing by hand allows me to quickly label my diagrams before I lose my train of thought. Even when I'm writing my own notes, I try to do it neatly so that I can come back and remember what I wrote about. Sometimes I'll come back months later to an idea, which I need to understand again so I can take it forward and develop it. The ability to communicate through writing has been a huge help to me in my career - creating persuasive messages which have helped me to attract a following and keep them engaged. When I was at school I found writing really hard. But it gets easier with practise and I still practise every single day.

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• Handwriting has been key to my work as a teacher and author. Although my novels end up being typed for publication, the process always begins with me sitting with a pen and paper, collecting my thoughts. When I teach creative writing to my students, I always encourage them to handwrite their ideas: it's almost as though holding the pen, getting the ideas down on paper rather than on an impersonal computer screen, helps the creativity flow. When I write poetry, handwriting is absolutely essential. Handwriting gives you an immediacy of expression that you just can't get from typing. I need to see my crossings out, substitutions and arrows rearranging the line order as they guide me toward the finished piece. Although my son has dyspraxia and finds handwriting difficult, I still encourage him to practise, as I see it as the one time a writer can feel completely free. No matter what the future may hold in technological advancements, handwriting will always remain a skill we should cherish and nurture.

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• I talk about the the way language - reading, writing and speaking - contributes to our cultural identity and helps us to fit into a wider society.
• My talk is aimed at educationalists and school pupils concerned about the lack of creativity in schooling and education and helps them to see the power of teaching handwriting skills.

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• I spend a lot of time at a computer. 
• I will confess to not having the best handwriting.
  In fact it's awful.
  But, I still need to write by hand... to collect my thoughts, to scribble ideas, to journal and to sign documents. 
• Writing helps me to get the creative stuff in my brain on paper.

Speaks About...

• About communication, the ability to express oneself. Being able to write is a powerful gift
• Words have power and they can be used wisely.
• Feelings written down and expressed can be a wonderful process and practise. 
  I will elaborate on this.

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• Writing by hand allows the writer much more freedom of expression. When you have a blank sheet of paper and a pen, or a pencil, you can write in any direction. You can write upwards, sideways, or downwards. However your mood and your thinking take you.
• You can be as creative as you want to be. You can add drawings, diagrams, doodles whatever you want.
• With a computer screen you can only use the characters available to you on the keyboard, and you can only type in straight lines left to right.
• There's little scope for creativity. It's very constraining.
• Many of the ebooks I've written over the years started out as handwritten notes. Sometimes even written in full in long hand. Then typed up later.
• I use mind maps a lot of the time. To create order to my thoughts, and even to use as an aide memoire when when being interviewed for TV or radio.
• I started off as an avid reader when I was little. Then became a prolific writer. I've written poetry, articles, blogs, ebooks, reference books, all sorts. And it all started with handwriting. Oh and I still use a handwritten bullet journal!

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• I was born in the 80's when we had no computers or mobile phones so until more recent years, there has never been any other way of writing letters, stories, essays, exam answers, CV's or application forms but to use my hand. 

• Nothing compares to receiving a hand written letter or card from someone still.

  From a very young age I loved animals and decided I wanted to be a biologist. So I read books about marine biology in particular and wrote in my school English language classes, only stories about my love of animals and nature. By being able to write easily and enjoy doing so, I could study the subjects I loved of Biology and be able to write all the essays and exam paper answers which helped me get to my studies at university. Writing by hand gives you the chance to take a breath, time to express yourself through your own handwriting and creation of letters and stories in your own time, not being hurriedly prompted by predictive text or autofill of computers. When setting up Wild Planet Explorers, I had to write all my new scripts and I did all this originally by hand so I could take myself away from technology, unhurried. I enjoyed writing all my ideas and seeing them flowing on to the page in front of me, it was a joyful and exciting experience and I continue to do it to this day with every new script I write. 

  Additionally, there is a chance one day that technology will fail us and we will need to return to writing our words rather than typing them, will the children of today be ready if that happens? We cannot lose this skill and in fact with the ever growth of loneliness in our elderly population, I believe there should be a letter writing campaign to match every child to an elderly person in 2021 who lives alone.

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• Writing has been a crucial part of who I am throughout my whole life. Handwriting was crucial when I learned shorthand to become a journalist and then used it when conducting interviews and chasing stories. Not everyone is comfortable being recorded when they're sharing details of their life, celebrities used to struggle with having their every word saved in recorded form. The pen was a vital tool in maintaining an open flow of conversation without an interviewee being daunted by having their words come back to them. I have worked in some of the world's biggest emergencies. I lived in Congo, interviewing survivors of sexual violence, talking to women and girls about their safety, bringing clean water into villages. Technology was sparse, there were no mobile power points, being able to write was crucial to me recording my experiences around the community. After the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, I met survivors, who talked about their experiences. We sat in the shells of houses surrounded by the remainders of their possessions. A recording would have been intrusive. Now I work with stories, I sell inclusive and representative children's books to schools and families. I visit schools, we write stories together. There is something beautiful about our imaginations prompting our pens to write, stories being told through writing it all down on a piece of paper. I have kept a journal my whole life. Its not an accurate account of my life but it's a picture of my feelings and my thoughts, only true at the point of writing. Writing gets the thoughts out of your head, gives you a new perspective which a cold white screen and typing will never do. Writing helps me access parts of my brain that I don't access very often and gives me new perspective. Writing is my most valued skill, one which I'm grateful for every single day.

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• Because handwriting is such a multi-sensory (tactile, visual-perceptual, olfactory, and kinetic) experience, it has allowed me to manage my self-care that I mentioned in my bio. For decades I have processed thoughts, feelings and solutions in my handwritten journals. Further, when I underwent PTSD treatment, I was ordered by my doctor to hand write my thoughts that popped into my head after each of the EMDR sessions. The reason for writing by hand is that you allow your brain to shift info/memories/etc from one side of the brain to the other side and then out of the brain and onto the paper. Once the info is written on paper, your brain knows that it no longer has to worry about that thought or memory and this frees your brain to do important activities. Unfortunately, I did not learn how to write with the Start-Bee method (I learned back in the 1970's...before Start-Bee was created). Even though handwriting was challenging for me, I relied on it for everything: journaling; note taking in school classrooms; note taking during music class (writing the director's info on the sheet music); and writing letters to those I cared about. Thanks to handwriting, I was able to successfully transform my trauma and challenges into opportunities to work with clients who also suffered from injury and trauma. I was also able to connect with my son with autism because I could meet him at his point of pain and guide him out of his struggles. Plus, I was able to encourage him to use handwriting as a way for him to manage his anxiety. Without handwriting, I would not be able to create marketing pages like I do for Start-Bee, Harwood Education and eduCCate Global. I still rely on handwriting to this day, despite the easy access of the computer...because I know that without handwriting, I would not be able to fully express myself in my computer/marketing work, podcasts or speaking engagements (either in person or online).

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• A life of freedom and plenty
• When I started to write, I never thought that one day I would be writing about what I am going to tell you now. 
  Not long ago, we used to think that humanity would go on forever as we are, living on a planet full of resources, water, air, food and energy. It looked as an endless supply was available. We would never run out of forests, the ocean seemed so vast, the air in the atmosphere we breathe so clean. Reality, however, is very different now. In recent years, and in less than half a century, that has changed. People from all around the world have started to realize that things aren't going that way. Storms are more frequent and more devastating, forest fires have turned into raging infernos out of control consuming entire cities in their wake, pollution is everywhere in the air, water and food, the oceans are full of plastic, coastal cities are now seeing sea water entering their subways and streets during high tides, birds, plants & animals that we cherish, love and took for granted are disappearing for ever at an ever increasing speed. 
  We, as a species, have to change the way we live on the planet. We have to lower our consumption, reduce our consumerism, eliminate fossil fuels & plastic, and cut down on waste and pollution. Fortunately, we know how to do this. It can be done and it has to be done if we want to remain on the planet and leave our descendants a world where they can raise their children and grandchildren. 
  To do it, we will have to re-educate ourselves. We need only eight technologies for a life of freedom and plenty. Most have been known for thousands of years. They work in synergy and self-complete with each other to meet all human needs in an ecologically sustainable way and with a substantially reduced human footprint on the planet. Each one of the now almost eight billion human beings on the planet can enjoy a home, clean water, food, soil and air, energy and education without the use of oil, synthetic or transgenic chemicals, while taking care of the waste produced to restore the nutrient cycle.
  And then we will have to educate all future generations in a different way, show them that nature is what makes us, clean air, water, soil and food, not the other way around. Nature makes us. We don't make nature. Never did, never will.

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• At the age of 4 years and 11 months, I arrive at school writing.   The hidden effects of trauma caused me to withdraw into my strength, caring.  I was more of a nurturer, a peace maker than a competitor.
• Despite being able to write, I was labelled Special Needs for English. My emotions were the issue.  I wasn’t expected to achieve much. “You will only care for people for the rest of my life” I was told.  As though looked down upon.  I required multi layers of healing from an early age.  
  Determination became my friend.  Low expectations from family, gave me permission to strive for personal goals with easy and flow. Everyone said ‘I couldn’t’, so I thought, “Maybe I can’.
• I continued my studies secondary, college and university. Academia became my focus. Despite achieving lower grades in most subjects. ‘Get a good education = a good job + set for life’.  This is based upon your family lineage and status.  We were hard workers, hard work had nothing to do with abilities and achievements. It was deeper.
• Leaving home, I was freer mentally to focus on becoming a Social Work, and left University of Central Lancashire with a BA Hons (2:1) Social Work and Community Studies.  Later I would return to the college and university to teach.  Despite overcoming many blocks to writing and study, I overcame the hurdles of not being very clever to teach and manage others as a Manager.
• The problem : What I needed from education was the opportunity to express.  To access the inner child, heal and release through expression.  Lightbulb (looking back in this moment), I created the solution.  Being withdrawn has nothing to do with my ability to write. Writing gave me the opportunity to express those hidden parts of me. Integrating them into my life has allow me to flourish and blossom.  Creating an emotional intelligence framework to thrive. Seeing the words fall onto the page through my inner dialogue gives credit to this emotional intelligence of expression which is often supressed as children.  I now empower children, parents and adults to communicate through these powerful tools to access the creative inner world which may have been hidden in darkness.   Around the world we teach through ‘Play – Empower In An Hour’ & ‘Tell Your Story, read, handwrite and type, in their voice and expression, without judgement.  This gives access to the deep reservoir of wisdom, authenticity and transparency. Transforming Lives.

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• Put very simply, If I could not write, I would not be a teacher. Through recent pedagogical research with colleagues, I have realised that to acquire knowledge, I need to write things down. I know that this is the case for many children.
• We write for ourselves or for an audience and therefore our handwriting needs to be legible. The presentation of our work can also portray an image of ourselves and ultimately affect our self esteem and achievement.

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• Handwriting is still crucial in this day and age. Without being able to write notes and jot down ideas, we would not have been able to accomplish the planning it takes to write our books. Even with our school, work, the action of writing something down transfers the knowledge in a much deeper way that typing.

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