I was born in Princess Mary’s Hospital Newcastle in April 1949 and came home to 75 Leam Gardens where I lived until I was six with my Gran and Granddad, Edie & George Bellis and my Mum & Dad, Edna & Cuth Younger.
Mum & Dad & me moved to 55 Manor Gardens when I was six or seven in 1955/6 and I went to Old Wardley School. My first teacher was Mrs Bearpark, who I adored and then I met Ken Felton, he must have been seven or eight and he was my hero for years but I never told him.
 After leaving Wardley School we went to live in Felling and I went to a tiny school in Sheriff Hill, which I loved. Lynne Jefferson & Gwen Roddam from Wardley also went there. That school went bankrupt and I then went to Claremont College in Newcastle (owned by Skerrys), which I hated. I worked as a trainee hairdresser at Court Hairdressers in St. Mary’s Place, Newcastle for a couple of years and then worked in an Old Peoples Home in Whitley Bay. I really loved working there, I love old peoples stories. I was deciding just what to do with my life, I had been doing exams since I was 11 for Speech & Drama and I applied to go  Drama School, I was accepted at Birmingham Theatre School but I was very torn whether to stay in Wardley or go to College – however I started College and in my first term came back to Wardley intending to stay but things didn’t work out (the man I came back for wasn’t there, my Aunty Ella told me he was getting married to someone else) so I went back to College.
 When I left College I got a job in the local Rep and stayed in Birmingham working between the two theatres there for about two years, I did a bit of telly and a few of commercials. Then on to London and did a tour of Canada and USA – I worked for the same touring company for around seven years.
I did lots of small telly and commercials and more touring. I got married in March 1980 to an Irish actor who was on a different touring circuit to me and was doing a lot of filming at the time. He was about to finish on a war movie, which was shot in Europe, I can’t remember exactly where. Everyone’s boyfriend was on that movie for ages. He was going straight from there on to a prison story for BBC in 4 parts. This meant we had to have our honeymoon between filming in Scotland & Ireland, it was freezing. I already knew I’d made a mistake on my wedding day. I remember standing outside the church waiting for the priest to signal us to walk down the aisle and I remember seeing a red 137 bus coming down the hill. I thought, if I run I can make it to the bus stop, then I looked through the glass door and the priest signalled and everyone walked forward including me. Anyway we stayed together until 1986 and we got divorced soon after. During this time my son Robbie was born and he is 24 now and living in his own flat in London, he is of course wonderful.
I continued working in Commercials and small telly and as I couldn’t tour or work in theatre with a baby – I got a part-time job with a Criminologist (a friend of my agents) who specialised in serial killers. I used to type up parts of court transcripts and send these and other stuff to police all over the world. They might ask him if the way the killer had killed his victim could be found in a movie, book, film or news item, he always could match it up with something, usually a book. He was a brilliant man and gave talks to Police all over the world. I worked as his assistant when I wasn’t filming.  I was then offered a tiny part and understudy in a tour of ’15 Streets’ – starting at Coventry Belgrade, touring then going into The Playhouse, London. I must say I wasn’t sure about understudying but we had two weeks at Sunderland Empire and two weeks at The Royal, a great chance for Robbie (my son) to stay with his relatives. It was a wonderful tour, the company were great but I knew I had to change my job, I couldn’t tour Robbie for a long time. I’ll just tell this little story about 15 Streets – the first day, which is read-through day, we all sit and read our parts with the director. There was a young girl Helen Morland and her chaperone who turned out to be her Mum. Helen was playing Katie, the little girl in the play who drowns. I kept thinking I knew her Mum, and then it came to me – she was Norma Lowry, I was at school with her at Old Wardley. Not only that but her husband grew leeks and she told me that he had got his leeks from my Grandad, George Bellis.
During the run at The Playhouse I met an old girlfriend, she was an accountant for a Casting Office in London and I told her I was looking for a 9-5 job so I could be a proper Mum again. She got me a temp job in this Casting Office and I ended up working there for 12 years as PA to the owner. I did one or two commercials during this time. I left there in 1999 and set up my own business helping actors set up short films and fringe plays and setting up meetings for them with telly casting directors and production people, general information giving and introducing people. I also published casting books for Stage Schools. But I was thinking of coming home, during this time my Mum and Dad had been living in Cramlington and I had brought them to London because my Mum was tired out after nursing my Dad for a long time. My Dad died six months after coming to London and I discussed coming home with my Mum. So we did – I look after my Mum in Birtley (I knew Birtley only as a roundabout before) but now I love it, we are across the road from Dobbies, which is great because I’m hoping to get into gardening in a big way. I work occasionally with an agent in Newcastle and run my friends agency in London from home (out of hours – our computers are linked).
I haven’t worked as an actress for years but I had a script in my hand the other day (I was reading a play for a writer friend of mine) and it kind of floated through my head ……so if anyone is looking for an old actress …….. not really – I couldn’t bear to be away from home now, all those mad landladies and too hot or too cold hotels. I am very happy to be here and consider myself very fortunate to come from such a very good and solid place. It isn’t all plain sailing coming home. Sometimes I feel completely at home and other times I feel as if I’ve just landed from a space ship. I must mention the sign at the Central Station – as our train pulled in to Central Station on our final journey from London, we got off the train, crossed the bridge and I was thinking – have I done the right thing.  I looked up and there was the sign,  ‘Welcome Home’ – and I thought – yes I’ve made absolutely the right decision – it’s all about people here.
I would very much like to direct something, ideally something written by kids – about how they see the past, present & future. I’m into heavy drama, that’s what I’ve always worked in. Although I have done a bit in comedy,  I prefer Black Comedy. I would also like to work in Radio because this is my favourite medium – I have a radio in every room of the house. I love Rock, Jazz, some Classic, Opera but only if I’m working in it (I did some shows for English National Opera) I love all 60’s stuff. I write quite a lot, I have three books on the go now, I haven’t had any novels published yet but then again I haven’t finished anything yet but I have a literary agent so I’m hopeful. I read a lot; my favourite is thriller with a twist, preferably about serial killers. I love Spain, Canada and New York is my favourite, favourite town apart from Wardley, Birtley, Newcastle and surrounding areas.

Happy to be back - hoping to meet old friends – get at least one book deal – direct at least one play – and die in bed at home, listening to Jazz FM.