Ann Turner

I am a doctor's daughter raised after the War, with my twin brother, in the Berkshire countryside. I come from a generation that did not think girls needed any more of an education than an ability to competently converse, run a home and raise a family. I used to feel that this was unfair, as my twin was a surgeon and in my twenties I found myself in a position where I, too, had to provide for and educate my children alone. But I learned early in my life to have no fear of life and a self-confidence born of survival and that I had a mind uncluttered by scientific dogma that allowed me to see 'out of the box'.

Married to an electrical engineer we went to Venezuala in 1963, where we had two children. Kate, who is now lives in Austin Texas with her musician husband and son, Merlin, is an animal communicator and artist. Philip who was in the British Army and then did an MBA in Capetown, became a successful entrepreneur, now living with his lovely wife and my other grand-children, Honor, Arthur and Kate, in Suffolk.

Sadly, I found myself alone with the children in Venezeula in 1969 with a living to earn. " Mrs.Turner's English Sausages", working for a new advertising agency run by Cuban refugees and a daily breakfast show on radio in Caracas, along with heading up a committee that ran the most beautiful amateur theatre, saved us all. It was a wonderful time but my children were English and should be educated in the UK.

We returned in 1971. I was lucky enough to get a job with BBC radio and then ITV television, where I worked on the production side until 1990. We lived in the country in Hampshire, with horses and dogs in a farming community. My Father lived with us after my Mother died of cancer and when he 'left' us I was suddenly free of responsibilities. Except for a puppy I was training for the Guide Dogs for the Blind, I had nothing to keep me anywhere. I just knew I was never going to play bridge, golf or go to fund raising coffee mornings….for me there was something out there to make my own.