I am a veteran drama practitioner who trained in the 1960s to be a speech and drama specialist in primary and secondary schools in Scotland and have had a continuing commitment to children's expressive arts ever since.

Throughout a long career as a BBC Radio Producer I continued working in drama with children and young people, specializing with pre-school and infant drama, directing projects for the Royal Lyceum Theatre at the Children's International Festival, persuading BBC Scotland to provide TV and Radio workshops for children, and founding Livewires, the acting agency for Scottish children and young adults.

In 2001 I took early retirement from the BBC to concentrate on creative arts projects and events for children, in education, broadcasting and arts environments. After a brief spell contributing to 'Balamory' the popular C Beebies television drama series for children, I branched out into the more interactive world of children's arts.

Under the banner of Sounds Creative I provided audio and drama workshops at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery - at the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh - for the Scottish Youth Theatre in Glasgow and the Borders - for the Fife Library

Service at the Carnegie Hall in Dunfermline - and as a regular feature in the children's programme in the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

In 2004 I became the first co-ordinator of the Reading Rich Project for Scottish Book Trust, developing creative ways of motivating 'looked after' children to read for pleasure.

Working in Moray with the author Des Dillon I became fascinated by the impact of the professional artist on young people's own artistic development and creative expression.

My company Books Alive was established in 2006 to offer nurseries, primary and special schools, libraries and festivals, a host of drama and performance workshops, which highlight a wealth of children's literature, and involve guest arts professionals - actors, musicians, visual artists, sound engineers - to inspire children's imagination and creativity in the expressive language arts.