My favourite memory of Queen’s
Brian McGuiness getting to know that I was interested in child care and setting me a series of essays in moral philosophy that addressed the sort of issues I was likely to encounter.
What Queen’s means to me
I learned many things from Queen’s which I have treasured and also things from the wider university all of which have stood me in good stead.
My journey since leaving Queen’s
I became interested in criminology but Lucy Faithful, then Children’s Officer for Oxford, advised me to go into child care to prevent children going into prison. This I did for a while and then, to take a break partly to start a family, I moved into teaching mature students which I found I was better at than caring for children – not that I was bad at that. That opportunity led me into micro-computers, gender issues and doing an MSc in Information Management at Lancaster University which in turn led me into management consultancy and to becoming an Open University tutor. I became involved in supporting people in employment disputes and that eventually led me, via my work with victims, into working voluntarily with offenders.
Parallel with all this I became an academic copyeditor and eventually a typesetter; as my early grounding in microcomputers and the Information Management course had given me a taste of good quality programs, I avoided Windows and moved straight to Linux which has supported my work both when I was active as a management consultant and since I retired and use my experiences in a purely voluntary capacity.
A colleague once remarked that my career made no sense but in practice I have found that things I learnt at different stages – including from Brian McGuinness – have crossfertilised my work in many different areas.
Most recently, in the absence of a minister at our church, I have been taking bible study and shared with people things I learned from G.E.M. de St Croix when I was at Queen’s.