Me in a nutshell.

I was born and grew up in Worcester UK, at my parent's house on the banks of the River Severn. It was a great place to live and I spent many hours rowing up and down the river. We spent one summer collecting Corona pop bottles which had been thrown into the river because you got ten pence when returned to the shop. This was very profitable for me and my sisters. I learnt the clarinet as a child and music has played a huge part of my life. I have played in orchestras, chamber groups and trombone in a brass band. At music college in my late teens I started to play the cello and now 40 years later I have returned to the cello as a hobby and am thoroughly enjoying playing.

When I was 18 I moved to college in Newark-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire to study woodwind instrument making and repairing. This fascinated me and played to my strengths with many hours in woodwork and metalwork classes. Sport has been the other love of my life with hours and hours after school spent bouncing on the trampoline as well as hours in a swimming pool in the evenings. At junior school I was always cross that I was in the netball team as this meant that I wasn't allowed to play hockey on the field but had to practice netball instead.

After leaving college I moved to East Sussex. When my son was 6 he wanted to become a Power Ranger but we settled for a karate class as Power Ranger classes were in short supply! After about a year I took the plunge with a friend and had a go at an adult karate class. As well as keeping fit it was a fantastic way of spending quality time with my son as we moved through the grades together. I was hooked on karate immediately. This new found passion grew and when experienced enough I started teaching. With my partner Barry, we now run a very successful karate school, CMA Karate and teach karate to international and world level in Sussex and Kent, UK.

Whilst I was growing up my family has always had animals. There were various dogs but our first dog, Bracken was very special and this is where my love of Golden Retrievers stems from. I now have two dogs, a cat and six chickens. All our present animals have been rescued from dubious lives and I now actively support the animal charity which brought us our latest dog, Quita. Happy Paws Puppy Rescue saves mainly Golden Retriever dogs from mainly Turkey where animals are generally not well looked after. When you experience the wisdom that a rescued dog brings to you through their experiences and what they give back in return for your help the feeling is priceless. There is a well known phrase that a dog will always teach you something you need to learn and this I find to be true.
It was the need to help raise a large amount of money to bring twelve retrievers to safety that sparked the idea for my first book and the rest, as they say, is history. Life in the Padget household is never dull as we create and accept the challenges that new opportunities bring our way.