I was born in Port Talbot in 1960.  I studied Ancient History and Archaeology at Birmingham University, and obtained my PhD in Egyptology in 1987. 

I spent twelve years as a civil servant in the Department of Health, where my policy experience included nurses' pay policy, NHS reform and performance management, public health policy, food safety, infertility treatment and embryo research, the NHS research and development strategy, maternity services, patient and public involvement and HIV and AIDS. 

From 1995-96, I was a Harkness Fellow of the Commonwealth Fund of New York, studying health and ageing and based at the University of California at San Francisco.

I have also worked in management consultancy in the financial services industry, and am now Commissioning Adviser at the British Heart Foundation.  I am a published novelist, and a former Director and Trustee of the Egypt Exploration Society and the Harkness Fellows Association.

I am part of the LinkedIn network.  My Twitter name is BHFCommission.