A 100% native British English speaker, I spent 38 years in London where I had a first career as a bilingual secretary, then analyst/programmer. I then moved to France via a three-year stopover in the Netherlands, where I trained as an EFL teacher.

In addition to nearly fifteen years' experience in France teaching business English, I am a qualified French to English translator with five years' experience.

Both as a trainer and translator, I am active in the tourism and hospitality sector (prime business areas here in the South of France), and my other translation specialisations are in marketing, education and HR translations, whilst I also provide pro-bono translations for PlaNet Finance and Translators Without Borders. My strength lies in my ability to provide flowing English texts, translating the message rather than providing a literal translation. This is an important requirement in my specialist areas.

I do not accept technical scientific, medical or engineering translations as I could not guarantee the quality. Providing a top-quality translation, not a minute after the agreed deadline, is very important to me, and I would rather turn down a job than fail on either count.

An additional area of expertise is the CV. I have been running a monthly workshop for the French national job centre for the past six years now, helping approximately 150 jobseekers per year with their English-language CV, covering letter and interview. Attendees come from all walks of life and have plans to work in all parts of the world.

Although I do translate CVs into English, I much prefer to liaise with the author to produce the best possible English CV. A CV needs to be localised rather than simply translated and anyway very few people pay sufficient attention to the content and presentation of their CV. I am happy to provide an English CV consultancy service - if you are interested, please send me an email or see the Exchange section for more details.