After my degree I moved to London and for the first six weeks I did all the things a struggling singer should. Sent out my demos, called all the session agents. Then I got offered a few gigs in wine bars and hotels and got a boyfriend and got settled, and I settled for that. We did regular gigs at the Mean Fiddler in Harlesden, North London, and we headlined a few times – still plugging our songs and trying to get along – when I had the idea of going on a cruise! I’d been a gigging musician for about four years by then, but I hadn’t seen anything of the world yet. Looking back I think I was trying to copy my Dad who’d gone ‘on the ships’, as he’d say.

It was a great learning curve for us, a great way to meet and work with people from all parts of the world and walks of life. When we were on our first cruise we were going through Egypt and Jordan. The weather was too hot to do anything except sit in our cabin. So I put together a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald – a 45-minute cabaret featuring stories and anecdotes about Ella’s life, she being one of my heroines.

I performed the show for the first time on a cruise which just happened to feature a lecturer called John Hasse who was giving talks about the lives of some of the great jazz legends – including Ella. My show went down a storm and I got a standing ovation from a room full of very discerning Americans of Ella’s generation. John Hasse congratulated me, and it turned out that he had been appointed to be the curator of the Ella Fitzgerald museum in Washington. It was a honour to have entertained a theatre full of people who were no stranger to that style of music – most of whom had seen Ella perform live.

We returned to London, very experienced and accomplished ‘wallpaper’ musicians. We could sit in the background of any swanky hotel and give the audience exactly what it wanted – classy jazz and easy listening pop. For the next four years or so we made a comfortable living flitting between London, the cruise ships…and Cyprus – at a really posh hotel where movie stars, big rock musicians and media types hung out.

“A Little Bird Told Me” is an album which spans the gap between my love of jazz and my need to communicate in my own style. With a swing version of Simon and Garfunkel’s “59th Street Bridge Song” and a funked up “Night & Day”, I showed that I wasn’t interested in simply re-creating the past. I believe that artists need to add something of their own to an old song to justify performing it.

Released on the Black Box was my debut album and I launched it at what had been my musical Mecca for many years; Ronnie Scotts’ club in London. My husband Charlie (also my drummer and musical collaborator of many years) and I were regulars at Ronnie’s, so walking on stage as the headlining act was an incredible feeling. The label hired the venue on a Sunday night, and it sold out! We also played three nights at Pizza On The Park, a wonderful venue in Knightsbridge, London, early in January 2001. We sold out there on a Wednesday night, which we were told was unheard of!

I felt like I was on Cloud 9. I remember having singers coming up to me and asking for advice, as if I had made it.

However, it had taken so much energy to get to that point – I was beginning to get a bit tired of the schmoozing, the rat-race…and my mind was beginning to think about…babies!!

We decided to move to Saffron Walden, a lovely market town in North Essex, and began working in schools as music teachers. Within three months I became pregnant – and overjoyed.

Having our daughter Drousha (named after one of the villages in Cyprus) was utterly wonderful, but a huge shock to my system. I hadn’t appreciated the 24/7 nature of parenthood. So when she started having a routine and doing a bit of nursery, I was chomping at the bit to get into the studio and record all the songs I’d ever written – almost in case I never got the chance again.

I decided to make my second album “My Open Eye” an all-original affair. There was no shortage of songs! I could have filled a double album. It took a lot more confidence to just work on my own songs – but the success of “A Little Bird Told Me” gave me the confidence I needed.

This time I produced an album independently of any record company involvement, preferring to keep control of the whole process – writing, producing, arranging and starting my own label, Mr Riddle’s Music.

I dedicated “My Open Eye” to my family – especially my husband Charlie and daughter Drousha. Drousha has given me so much – not least she’s taught me to value my time. I relish every moment with her but moments alone are so rare that I treasure them beyond belief and try to do something special with them. I started working on the album when Drousha was 10 months old and I was just emerging from that hazy bubble of new motherhood.

The overwhelming response in 2005 to “My Open Eye” has taken me into a different phase in my career. With new management, meetings at record companies, some serious press (eg Mojo – “beauty and broken glass all at once”), some serious gigs (like supporting Jamie Cullum in front of an audience of 10,000), airplays on Radio 2 and interviews on BBC local radio. Not to mention seeing my album on sale in supermarkets; my feet have hardly touched the ground.

As well as working on my material for my own label, I am also keen to put my own slant on the jazz standards. During 2006 I have been working on my next project, “Moving Shadows”. This album, featuring Charlie on drums and Julie Walkington on double-bass, includes classic songs that are perfect for putting out on a specialist and reputable jazz label. 33-Records will be issuing “Moving Shadows” late in 2006.

I have been busy focussing on this new album, playing regularly at lovely venues such as The Saffron Hotel, in Saffron Walden, The High Barn, in Bardfield, Essex, Pizza On The Park and The National Theatre in London.

In my local area I suppose I have become a sort of minor celebrity with a loyal following for which I am somewhat humbled. Of course I don’t mind that!

But I also dream of recognition – I don’t mean recognition for the sake of fame, money or fortune. It is so that the music, which is so important to me, is what people would like to hear, and hopefully enjoy. At least enough so that I can continue doing what I’m doing for a few more years yet. That’d be good!

I am clearer than ever about before about what I want; time to write, time to record, and do loads of gigs – where people come, ready to listen…wanting to go on a journey, ready to use their minds and brave enough to try and get into mine!