About the Author

I was born and brought up in God's chosen country, the north east of England; a region called Tyneside, which is about 70 miles from the English/Scottish border. My only real claim to fame is that I was born in the same place as Sting (Wallsend - literally the end of the Roman Wall), although I never lived there.   Actually, since his name is Sumner and my maiden name is Summers, we are probably descended from the same fair-haired Saxons, but I'm off-topic already.

In 1980 I left the freezing tundra of the north east and went to Bristol University, where I pretended to study law and generally had a whale of a time.   From there I settled in London and had an even more uproarious time, pretending to work in Human Resource and Training stuff.   It was during this time that I met my future husband, who would probably like to remain anonymous (Mark).   He was over in England for three years from Dallas.   We eventually married in 1990, (she says, skipping boring and sappy details) then he left for Dallas without me. As is my luck, our immigration papers got lost somewhere and I had to stay behind for a month.

As is even more typical, the night before I left England to live in Dallas, I went out for a farewell dinner with my trusty girlfriends. One friend was late and I saw her walk past the restaurant and carry on down the Kings Road. Thinking that she couldn't find us, I jumped up and ran full pelt into the restaurant's glass door.   There was a collective gasp as everyone in the restaurant practically stood up to see what had happened.   (She was in fact heading for a pedestrian crossing that was just past the restaurant.)   When I woke up the next morning, both knees were black and bruised, and I had a sizable egg on my forehead. After a nine hour flight to Dallas, I could barely get out of my seat and the first sight Mark had of his new bride was of a hobbling, whining me, trying to explain what had happened.  

I now live in Chicago with said hubby and three children of varying ages, - 13, 10 and 2 to be exact.   I gave up the corporate world about seven years ago and began putting my thoughts together for what would become this book.   My days are now spent in domestic chaos, but I'm happy to say that we are able to travel to England and beyond every summer, where my kids feel completely at home and pride themselves on being "bi-lingual".