I
was born in Portugal and lived there until I
was 24 years of age. At that point, I decided
that having studied foreign languages and literature
for my Master’s Degree, I should put its foreign
part to work, so packed my bags and went to
Germany. Initially, to stay only for six months
as an au-pair and improve my German knowledge
but actually ended up staying for ten years.
Whilst there, I went on to do my teaching qualification
and became a teacher of languages and history
but also worked as a lecturer, a translator
and a television presenter.
One summer, I went to spend
a holiday in the Algarve with my family and
there met a nice Englishman who eventually
was guilty of bringing me to his country.
Once in the UK, I first worked as a teacher
but suddenly decided I had had enough of unruly
teenagers and simply quit. I then got a job
at American Express in Brighton and that is
where I still work.
Classical music in general and opera in particular
were always part of my interests; my father taught me to love them from
a very tender age but I never had any formal training until recently
when I decided to study music and piano. My greatest passion however
is writing, which I have been doing uninterruptedly since I was a child.
I write novels, short stories and poetry and one fine day woke up and
thought that it would be fun to combine my love for music with my love
for writing. That is how I started doing reviews. Several of my reviews,
some poems and three novels have been published. I continue to write
reviews of books, concerts and opera, and lately also classical music
CDs and DVDs. I have done the occasional interview and of course have
never stopped writing fiction. This work that I view as pleasure and
entertainment and not work, is done parallel with my job, which at the
moment is what really pays the bills.
To finalise, I just would like to add that although
the above are my main interests and passions, I also love to travel
and I like flying, which meant that a couple of years ago I started
having helicopter lessons.
Margarida's website is http://www.flowingprose.com/