I grew up in East Anglia, Great Britain, but from the age of eighteen I haven't been able to keep still and I have worked and studied in Nepal, Italy, Australia, Latin America and London. I speak fluent Italian and good Spanish.

I spent five years in the computer industry working with Linux, free software and the internet, helping to build some of the first major online projects in Australia including Spotlight stores, PieLink kiosks and the Cybersydney network. I continue to be a consulting editor for Free Software Magazine.

While I was living in Australia, I became involved in filmmaking. The Film & Television Institute in Fremantle was a very supportive community and allowed me to experiment with set design and cameras. I made my first cultural documentary, Grazie A Dio Stiamo Bene with the help of the FTI.

I practice japanese shiatsu massage, yoga and meditation. I also sing, play piano and I like to dance, especially in Cuba and Brazil where a girl still gets asked to dance.

I began writing articles as a teenager, for school and local newspapers, and my first magazine article was for the Italian computer publication Login. Computers eventually took me to Latin America where I wrote about the good things that were happening there because of open technology. Since then, newspapers and magazines have allowed me to write about my many other interests, including food, health and travel.

At the moment I am researching eco villages with the hope of eventually living in one. In 2005 I helped renovate a semi-derelict Victorian house in London and my next long-term project is to build a house from scratch that runs entirely on self-produced heat and electricity.