I had a varied childhood, moving all over the world and went to 12 different schools - perhaps that explains why I enjoy a lot of variety in my work! I started work under my maiden name; Pamela Tubby, and subsequently under married names; Pamela Hopkinson from 1983 and then Pamela Butler from 2000
I started writing as a student journalist during a year's American Field Service scholarship in California and carried on back in England, becoming editor of the Birmingham Sun, the student newspaper for Aston University and Birmingham Polytechnic.
One of my first jobs was as a writer for Camera Press, the photographic news agency.
I joined the publishing industry and worked for Tom Stacey, Marshall Cavendish, Dorling Kindersley and Mitchell Beazley and with a small packager, Martensson Books on mass-market co-editions focussing on anthropology, woodwork and textile crafts.
Rock climbing and mountaineering became a passion and I climbed in Britain, the Alps and Nepal - climbing Island Peak in the Khumbu region of Nepal with two other members of the London Mountaineering Club, then completed a trek along the length of the Himalayas from Sikkim to Srinigar.
In the 1980s I moved to the Derbyshire Dales working for a time in local government PR before returning to freelance editing. Clients included Quarto, Design Eye and Scarthin Books - a great local bookshop with a publishing sideline of the Family Walks series and Derbyshire History books. Educational magazine publisher, Questions, in Birmingham, wanted to expand into book publishing and for three years I worked as Commissioning Editor to help them build up a substantial list of books and workpacks for primary and secondary age children.
In the 1990s we all went online, I bought my first Mac, trained in Quark Xpress and created my first website, for the Bonsall Village Map Project. This led to work as website editor and in-house journalist for Slimming World.
I love Derbyshire, its landscape and its history and I have been passionately involved in local activities - as a founder member of the Bonsall Map Project, Bonsall Film Society and editor of Middleton's monthly newsletter the Village Pump. I have worked online as web editor for the Bonsall History Society, and with print media as publicity work for the Wirksworth NOW Consultation Project
Over the past few years I have been writing on a range of subjects including travel writing and fiction. I was a runner-up in 'The Independent' Travel Writing Competition in 2002 and winner of the first Matlock Live Short Story Competition.
For 3 years I was Freelance Co-ordinator for the Derbyshire Community Foundation Vickers Fine Art Award.
Paws on the Moors is a 25-minute play commissioned by the Moors for the Future project as a way of showing how dog owners can keep their pets happy and safe on the moors alongside wildlife and livestock. It follows the adventures of "Barney" a young collie-cross, reporting through his 'dog-blog' back to old friends and making new friends in the cyberpack. The play is a downloadable podcast so that dog walkers can listen to it on the move.
Paws on the Moors was launched at Crufts 2007and voiced by the University of Derby Graduate Theatre Company and I am working with them on turning the story into a play for 24 live outdoor performances in May 2007.
Portugal 2004
I act as builder's mate to my partner Jacob as we convert our 1875 Wesleyan Chapel into a home and workspace.
Cycle touring has taken over from climbing as my way of finding outdoor adventure. Equipped with a tent, the appropriate Rough Guide and a map we have crossed France from end to end twice, explored northern Portugal, Crete, the Hebrides.
The Chapel garden is slowly coming along and I am Secretary of Middleton Allotment Association.
A few times a year I am Zen Cook on Buddhist retreats run by the Western Chan Fellowship in mid-Wales.
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