I’m a bi-national English/French independent journalist, published poet and fiction writer living between France and the UK. After a Masters and first part Doctorate from the Paris Sorbonne University in comparative literature, I worked for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the British Broadcasting Corporation/BBC, French television, and as media coordinator for the Paris based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development/OECD.  A member of the UK National Union of Journalists/NUJ I run workshops in English and French on creative writing.

I’m mostly concerned about human interaction with nature, landscapes, and history.  Pages on this site cover world-wide, national, and local environmental initiatives taken – whether sustainable or not – and the impact of individual initiatives on local communities.  Facts in the articles are based on what I have witnessed, on interviews conducted, and on detailed research.

My poems and fiction are inspired by the natural environment, and driven by a growing anxiety brought on by a fast receding green landscape.  We can learn most things about ourselves and about life in general from nature if we take the time to observe it closely, and respect it.  Harnessing it to our needs requires delicate balancing acts – and our ‘needs’ should be constantly questioned.  The poems and stories have been published (sometimes under my pen name Annie Shepherd) in the small UK and US presses, including Orbis, Forward Poetry, Poetry Monthly, Littoral Press, Upstairs at Duroc, New Writing Scotland, Chapman, Paris/Atlantic… and online.

My travels take me mostly to the Northern hemisphere, including Iceland, the US and the Northwest Coast of Canada where indigenous lore and legends capture the imagination.

In my spare time I play the piano, harpischord, and a recently purhcased clavicord  (Bach’s favourite instrument) – from a clavicord maker based in Limoges.  Its delicate sonority means playing it late into the night disturbs no-one, and it sounds like the tinkling of the stars which surround me.

Your comments are welcome (be sure to hit your keyboard ‘return’ button once you’ve written them, otherwise they don’t take).  Or contact me at angela.howard @ wanadoo .fr