Just before going to university, I realised that working during the day for thirteen pounds an hour was better than working during the evening for six or seven pounds an hour, so I forged a CV and took a CELTA*. I was a teacher at the age of nineteen. Then...
One of my favourite exercises to begin a session with (any session, beginner to advanced, committed hippy to fancy law firm) is ‘permission to move’. If you are familiar with it, skip to the end of the paragraph, but if you’re not, this is what it looks like: the group...
This October (dear god in heaven) will be the tenth year of the Nursery. Across four different buildings and countless classes, shows and events, the plucky little leaf is almost a decade old. It if also the fifteenth year of the Maydays and the sixth of Impromptu Shakespeare. I like...
It all started by accident. Robin met Judith at a drama school audition (they happened to be from the same city in the Netherlands). Robin and I were at the Guildhall School together and shared a pig-headed independence. Paddy and Sam were at LAMDA with Judith. We had shows we...
What did you want to be when you grew up? Astronaut? Firefighter? Pop star? Prime Minister?I wanted to not grow up.As I approached my 18th birthday, the horrifying realisation that ‘responsibility’ and ‘being sensible’ would soon be on the agenda scared the living daylights out of me. The idea of...
I mention a lot of books when I am teaching and coaching. Sometimes too many. It can make me feel like all I am doing is rehashing other people’s ideas, but maybe that’s just what teaching is, passing on the ideas of people smarter than you. So I thought I’d...
My lips twitched as I read the invitation. “The Nursery’s sternest ringmistress Heather Urquhart requests the pleasure of having you as a member of her company for a celebration of our nation’s finest scribe, Ms Jilly Cooper.” Surely that couldn’t be my name written in dark red ink, at the...
New year’s resolutions always comes with a lingering feeling of dread. Lovely they may be in theory, but we know they will soon be broken. It’s just a matter of time until we are, again, the abject failure that we were last year. Like when you meet a character in...