In a previous life I studied for a PhD in Archaeological Science at the University of Bradford. I used chemical techniques to analyse natural products from the Mesolithic (middle Stone Age) period, mainly from Scandinavia.
One of the things I looked at was tar which had human tooth impressions in it. It had half jokingly been referred to as ‘prehistoric chewing gum’ and I wrote an article about it for the magazine British Archaeology.
It must have been a slow news week because the press got hold of this story and my work was reported on the front pages of The Times, The Telegraph, The Observer, The Mail, and The Mirror. I was interviewed on Radio 1, Radio 4, Radio 5 Live and several regional stations, as well as a station in South Africa.
I even got a mention in the US on the Tonight show with Jay Leno, and I was the first person from the University of Bradford to ever be mentioned in the Chinese press!
The radio interviews I gave were all conducted from a small studio in the university PR department, and I clearly remember sitting behind the microphone waiting for an interview to start and thinking ‘I’m really enjoying this!’
I think that’s where my interest in VoiceOver first began…
I graduated with my PhD and spent a summer working at a museum, but once I moved to North Lincolnshire I couldn’t find a job in this sector and my life took a different turn.
Now I like to combine voice over and heritage where I can – audio guides for historic sites and voice over for museum installations are my favourite projects. Interesting places you can hear me include The Massey Shaw Fireboat on the Thames which was one of the Dunkirk Little Ships, and the Escher in het Paleis gallery in The Hague where I give you a tour of Queen Emma’s winter palace as well as telling you about Escher’s amazing artwork.
If you can introduce me to anyone in the heritage sector who might need my VoiceOver skills, I would love to be put in touch!