I’m Simon Watts. I was born in the Yemen of British descent. I grew up going between the Yemen and England until 10 – my father worked for the British government as part of the remains of the British Empire. I last went to the Yemen in 1964 not knowing it would be my last visit. I found schooling and English difficult. I focussed on Maths and Science. I worked for Shell for about 30 years in statistics and IT. I took early retirement aged 52. Without IT I would not have been able to pursue my interest in Creative Writing. In 2012 I joined a writing group and trained as a co-counsellor. In 2018 I self-published my first novel using the pseudonym Foresaw. In 2019 I started the Therapiece pilot. In 2021 I took on the running of Cutting Edge Writers (CEW). I hope my writing and understanding of people are still improving!
Officer – Chairperson, Bank signatory
Websites:-
Foresaw: https://www.foresaw.org
Therapiece: https://therapiece.org CEW: https://cuttingedgewriters.org
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I’m Georgina Parfitt (or Nini to some people!). I was born and raised in Norfolk, England, in a little village. I moved to Massachusetts when I was 19, to attend Harvard University, where I really found and explored my love of short stories. The next decade of my life was spent between the US and the UK, learning to write and teach. I now live in Liverpool. I am always at work on a short story and I’m excited to have one in the Best British Short Stories 2023, published by Salt. I met Therapiece in 2021, and was taken by how it gently transforms the traditional creative writing workshop into a time for personal discovery and helps people connect more deeply with others.
Officer – Wellbeing Writer
You can find more of me and my writing here: www.georginaparfitt.com
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Kevin Smith
I have grey hair, a foreign accent and like baking bread! My first (and last) published work of fiction was an anti-vivisection poem I wrote in primary school. I’ve lived in London for the past 25 years and brought up two daughters here; both daughters have now reached the age where they finish my sentences and remind me very gently of my character flaws. I attribute my growth in confidence and emotional competence to the co-counselling core training I completed in 2021. The following year I became a regular participant at Therapiece writing meetings which have not only given me access to a nurturing community but also to a place I can explore my hinterland and just have fun with sentences.
Officer
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Wakako Wigian
I was able to meet lovely people and enjoying creating my pieces. All the best of luck for the future!
Officer – Bank signatory
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I’m Karenza-Monica Patricia Case. I was brought up Catholic, and recovered in my early 20s. I was sexually abused by two different teachers from the age of about 7 to 16. I started hitch hiking aged 16, and hitched to Turkey with an American Jewish man when I was 20, sleeping rough when we were in the countryside. I worked as a teacher in Turkey, and found a puppy, which lived happily in the UK until aged 19. In Turkey, I learned of the serious injustices in Palestine. I was already passionate about justice and took the cause of Palestine to my heart.
I returned to Britain aged 22, and to my work in local government. I took further qualifications to gain entry to the Diploma in Social Studies, ext. London University, one of the two excellences in my education. I became a Social Worker in Coventry and Salford, aged about 27, and spent my time protecting my clients from some of my colleagues, from the police and courts. For about 8 years I spent my main holidays in West Cork, Eire.
Aged 35 I became accidentally pregnant, and gave up social work before my daughter’s birth. From when she was aged about 2 I started part time teaching in Further Education, (FE), doing my Teacher’s Diploma in Bolton 5 years later. I was glad I’d already learnt to teach, as this diploma was mainly about preparing a lesson plan. (Good for Offsted, but not very useful for teaching excellence.) However, I remain grateful to my English teacher, who gave me confidence in my writing ability.
I took a full-time job teaching in the Buxton, High Peak Collège of FE. Here I met the last guy I loved, Bob Brevitt, RIP, and discovered rock climbing. Brilliant, for the first time in my life I was doing things, routes, I couldn’t do!
I did a counselling diploma in Manchester, no complaints at all, and we moved to Barnstaple where I worked as the college counsellor until I was given the choice of redundancy, a lecturer post, or a drop in salary of £8000. I took the redundancy.
Aged 53 I returned to part time work as a social worker, and worked as a private counsellor. My daughter became accidentally pregnant when she was 18, I drank Guinness for a week, and said all the right things. Well done, Monica.
I started my MA in Core Process Psychotherapy, the Karuna Institute, hitching to the course and to my therapy. A brilliant education, and one in which, aided by my therapist in Ashburton, I finally arrived home in myself. Hello Karenza-Monica Case.
I moved to Exeter aged 58, following my daughter, granddaughter, and her partner, and worked for a year in an even then very stressed and stretched NHS, also developing my private counselling and psychotherapy practice.
I worked until I was 68, since which time I have travelled, loved being in other cultures, worked as a volunteer whenever an opportunity arose, and continued to grow.
Today aged 81, 6 weeks to the day since the Hamas broke out of the prison camp called Gaza, and crossed the border into Israel, I am volunteering in Bethlehem, and feeling my very resilient heart finally break in despair at the pain, killings, starvation, inflicted by the Israeli Zionist, Colonialist Government on the citizens of Gaza.
I don’t blame Israel, it has lost the plot, but I do blame the Western powers, who stand by, while this so-called nation behaves like an angry two year, and of course destroys itself in the process. May all beings live in peace.
In Therapiece I can be myself – and I have fun!
Officer
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