I'm a wine and food writer, a speaker, a tastings organizer, a recipe inventor and a believer that you are what you eat - and drink.

The edited highlights

I did a degree in Manufacturing Engineering at Loughborough University, and then joined the research team at a food packaging manufacturer. In 1995 I decided I’d rather be involved with the food inside the packaging and began teaching 'Tea and Coffee Appreciation' through adult education colleges. This later branched out into courses on wine and also whisky - these became so popular that they were regularly over-subscribed.

Running talks and tasting sessions for local businesses and social groups, including Women’s Institutes and Rotary Clubs, on wine tasting and tea appreciation became another sideline.

And this enthusiasm for the grape deepened with the making of award-winning home-made beer and wine - first using kits and then to my own recipes using freshly gathered hedgerow ingredients. My wines have won me the Tunbridge Wells Wine Circle Ladies Trophy and the E&R Jubilee Bowl, plus the Wells Trophy 2001 and the Brookside Novices’ Cup. I also like to keep my judgement and taste buds in shape by helping out with local wine competitions.

These interests, combined with a love of words, led me to approach magazines, and then later websites, with news stories and features on food and drink. Since then I’ve been a freelance writer for national magazines and websites as the Women's Institute's magazine WI Life wine columnist, weekly wine columnist for the over-50s website livingit.com and since 2008 I've been writing Paula's Wines of the Week, a weekly wine review and food matching column for Mature Times.