Life Happens: my journey through translation and other stories

Book excerpt: 'Dear Mr Snozzi, Do you remember me?' So began the letter that was going to take my life in a whole new direction. One month later I arrived in France’s Champagne region with one suitcase, dreadful spoken French and nowhere to live. Fast forward three years and I’m heading for London with one suitcase, fluent French, somewhere to live and a case or two of champagne. In 1990, I was on the move again. This time back to Scotland with several suitcases and a husband. Oh, and in the interim, I had become an in-house translator. After my heady, carefree 20s in the wine and spirits business, life was about to become much more serious with a mortgage, children, health issues, bereavement, the ups and downs of family life and – from 1997 – my own freelance translation business. Life Happens… and freelancers are all too familiar with the challenge of running a business while it does. This is my story of coping admirably, failing miserably and generally keeping my head above water most of the time.