An award winning British author, Sophie became well known after starring as ‘Titty’ in the 1974 movie 'Swallows and Amazons'. She has a degree in Anthropology, a background in TV production and is published by the Lutterworth Press.
Sophie’s family moved from the Malay States to Tanganyika in 1919, with a resolve to grow pyrethrum and ‘save the world from malaria’. Her cousins narrowly missed being caught up in the Zanzibar revolution but insisted she should visit the island as it opened up to visitors in the 1980s. Travelling on though twenty-one African countries she helped to found an HIV/AIDs project and is currently raising money to provide African schoolgirls with eco-sanitary pads.
After gaining an Honours degree in Anthropology, Sophie went into television production, directing her first documentary for Channel 4 when driving from London to Johannesburg. Having produced an Inset series for BBC Education, she set up a Blue Peter exploration of South Africa and worked freelance for the BBC Natural History Unit in Botswana and Namibia.
Having played Titty Walker as a girl in the original movie 'Swallows and Amazons', Sophie became President of The Arthur Ransome Society (2013-2019), speaking at literary festivals, on BBC Radio, and on ITV News. When her ebook, 'The Secrets of Filming Swallows & Amazons', attracted publicity in the Times and Telegraph she was commissioned to write 'The Making of Swallows and Amazons', (pub by The Lutterworth Press) and self-published two illustrated memoirs: 'Ride the Wings of Morning' and 'Funnily Enough’ which won a Rubery Book Award and was serialised in iBelieve magazine. She writes articles, DVD Extras, chapters for non-fiction books and has had four forewords published. Sophie has a fan following with more than 1 million views on social media and has a number of talks lined up for 2024.
Sophie's began writing for BBC Television at the age of twenty-two. Her first piece was an utter disaster. It was written for Nicholas Parsons who received a huge sum for re-writing it himself. However the concept worked well and she adopted the policy of re-writing drafts about fifty times before presenting them to the public.
Quotes
"When I first put an extract of my ebook 'The Secrets of Filming Swallows and Amazons' up on Goodreads, one reviewer wrote that it was 'a good idea for a novel but a bit far-fetched.' They didn't realise that my story was true."
An award winning British author, Sophie became well known after starring as ‘Titty’ in the 1974 movie 'Swallows and Amazons'. She has a degree in Anthropology, a background in TV production and is published by the Lutterworth Press.
