Welcome to my web page. As I am a woman 'of many parts', you will have heard of me through one of many channels. So to keep things simple, I start my autobiographical account at the beginning. Please bear with me: it is not very long and you should soon find the information you are looking for.

I was born and grew up in Reading, Berkshire, England, where I attended Caversham Primary School and Highdown School. After taking 'A' Levels, I spent a year as a sponsored student at the English Electric Valve Company in Chelmsford, Essex, where I learnt a lot about basic engineering practice and high vacuum systems. Then I started studying Engineering at Cambridge University. After two terms it became evident that I was neither happy nor thriving, so I secured a job with a small local manufacturing company and left the university. That job lasted only a few months, after which, finding myself unemployed, I paid a visit to the Cambridge Citizens' Advice Bureau. I was soon helping out on the reception desk there, learning telephony from a former GPO Operator. Armed with my new receptionist/telephonist skills and RSA Stage I typing (without a doubt the most useful thing I learned at school) I was then able to remain in work through a local temp agency until the following autumn, when I started the Electrical Engineering undergraduate course at Southampton University.

I completed the course at Southampton, graduating with First Class Honours in 1987. My final year project was entitled Development of a Digital Servo Drive under the supervision of Dr Richard Crowder. I remained at Southampton a further three years, producing a doctoral thesis entitled Double-frequency Stator Core Vibration in Large Two-pole Turbogenerators under the supervision of Dr Richard Stoll.

I then moved to Loughborough to join the Fundamental Development Group at Brush Electrical Machines as a Development Engineer. John Catt followed me and we married in March 1991. I left Brush in 1993 when I fell pregnant with my elder daughter Sophie, which gave me some time to develop my interests in Labour Party politics and transport campaigning (focusing mainly on cycling and railway issues through the Loughborough and District Cycle Users' Campaign and the Railway Development Society, now Railfuture). After Sophie's birth I joined the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers (ABM), set up a breastfeeding mothers' support group and trained as a Breastfeeding Counsellor.

In 1995 I was elected to Charnwood Borough Council, on which I served one four-year term. For most of this time I chaired Plans Sub-committee 1 (dealing with small but contentious planning applications). Shortly after standing down in 1999, I gave birth to my younger daughter Isobel.

When Isobel started school I joined the ABM Training Team and took responsibility for marking a module entitled Breast and Nipple Problems. I subsequently added the role of Mentor Co-ordinator to my ABM portfolio and joined the ABM Central Committee. I left the Labour Party because of the Blair Government's abandonment of not only the green transport policies on which it had stood at the 1997 general election, but the much weaker ones which it had inherited from the Major Government.

In 2005 I wrote the novella Automatic Lover and was spurred by this to investigate the current state of learning artificial intelligence (AI) as represented by Jabberwacky, which had just won the Loebner Prize for being 'most human-like' of the entries. I was thrilled to be asked by Jabberwacky's creator, Rollo Carpenter, to develop the character of Joan for the 2006 contest. Over the year I gave her 16,000 lines of conversation, so it was great to see her win. She reached the final again in 2007. I continue to work on her as she is now fronting the website of Rollo's commercial operation, Icogno, in avatar form.

I followed Automatic Lover with a novel-length sequel, Automatic Lover - Ten Years On. After a brief spell trying to interest various publishers and literary agents in my work, I decided I had no wish to waste my life in this way and published the two together in book form using author services provider Lulu. The book became available in September 2008.

In the summer of 2008 I spent two weeks working for the Engineering Development Trust, looking after sixth form students on university engineering taster ('Headstart') courses. It is possible that this work will become a regular feature of my life in future years.

I am a life member of the British Humanist Association (BHA). For me, Humanism is not synonymous with atheism but a conclusion to be drawn from it: as there is no God looking after us, we have to look after one another; and as there is no afterlife, we have to make this life as pleasant as possible for everyone.

Professionally, I am a loyal member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), formerly the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE). But I find a much more rewarding engineering organisation to be part of is the Women's Engineering Society (WES). The WES Conferences are particularly good.

In my leisure time I enjoy nothing better than going out cycling. I have always enjoyed cycling in company, and rode regularly with Cyclists' Touring Club (CTC) groups in Reading, Chelmsford, Cambridge, Southampton and Loughborough before starting my family. I met John in the CTC in Southampton. From Sophie's birth until recently we did most of our cycling as a family; but now that the girls are growing up and acquiring their own leisure interests, John and I take it in turns to ride with a group called the Loughborough Social Cyclists.

The most important thing I have learnt in life is not to try to plan too far into the future. Opportunities drop when they are ripe; and the best way to be sure of standing underneath is to fill each day with those tasks which appear most compelling. As my principal role is still that of housewife and mother, these often consist overwhelmingly of cleaning and food preparation jobs. Such mundane and usually unsung activities are nonetheless a vitally important contribution to the fabric of society and, being intellectually undemanding, give me plenty of mental space for creative and strategic thinking.

If you wish to contact me by email, my internet service provider is ntlworld.com. Use my first and last names in full in lower case, separated by a dot. Sorry, no live email link as I wish to avoid the SPAM this would attract. Alternatively you may phone me on 01509-211468.