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Jacqueline Pye - John Pye

I've been writing - and cooking - since the age of thirteen. Initially there was a long-running pop record column for a broadsheet local paper, but over the years work has included features on healthy eating, vegetarian cookery, nailbiting, stress, the paranormal, body image, superstition, fun quizzes, and so on.

After training and qualifying as a teacher and educational psychologist, I worked as an ed psych for Hampshire County Council for thirteen years, then becoming self employed as a chartered educational psychologist and eventually director of my own company, working with parents, children and students to maximise their learning and work out solutions to learning difficulties. My special interests have been dyslexia, dyspraxia, and giftedness. During these years I have written extensively on parenting and helping children to manage their behaviour, being published in a number of national magazines, the Times Educational Supplement, and in a UK south coast newspaper. I also ran an evening class in Child Development, leading to a qualification which every student gained.

I'm passionate about the importance of effective and beneficial parenting, and feel that these skills are vital for the wellbeing of children, their families, and society in general.

My other love is vegetarian cookery. I've been fully vegetarian for over thirty years, and have won numerous prizes for my original recipes, both savoury and sweet. I have also run a course in vegetarian cookery (none of the students dropped out), and did all the catering for my (second) wedding reception and for my husband's all-day retirement party where close on 100 people rolled up at various times.

I'm happily married to my second husband, after eleven years as a single parent. We handled the step parent thing carefully and, I think, successfully, but I am fully aware of the difficulties, tensions and joys of forming a step family. I now have two delightful and able granddaughters, also vegetarian and keen on helping in the kitchen, so I'm able to enjoy being around young children all over again!