Hilda Reilly:

Hilda was born in Perth, Scotland. After graduating from Edinburgh University she started training to become an actuary. Three months later she decided that not even the prospect of belonging to what was then the highest paid profession in the country could induce her to carry on in a job where all female employees were required to wear blue nylon overalls and disciplined if not at their desks by thirteen minutes to nine (the working day starting two minutes earlier!).

Subsequent jobs included oil industry analyst in London, artists’ model in Paris, technical translator in Baghdad, charity worker in Zanzibar and journalist in Ho Chi Minh City. In her last professional incarnation she spent five years in Khartoum as director of an educational charity.

She is currently studying in Liverpool where she is doing an MSc in neuroscience.

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