In 1987 I was working very happily as Deputy Editor of Country Homes and Interiors.  Then I made a serious career error. I married a tropical ecologist with a mission. 

He had been working in South India, Malaysia and Sierra Leone, and although he could pass a year or so in this country linking with a university or two, and writing up his research on Malabar giant squirrels, red colobus monkeys and various steamy and uncomfortable habitats and habits (don't ask), there was not much to keep him here after.

A long discussion provoked the inevitable conclusion. My work is more portable than his, so to stay together, have a family, do all the things that married people do, I would resign, pack up my skills package, and start a joint adventure.  I was born in India, and have travelled all my life, so this wasn't as daunting as it might have been on the funny furry animals, deadly diseases and horrid humidity front, but it was nevertheless a wrench.

I did it, we packed our cases, rented out our house and got on with our New Life. In Sierra Leone, long before the war, thank goodness.

We spent the next twelve years having a family (two boys) and moving about Africa and then to Brussels, with short spells back in the UK.

We learnt the worst phrase  any expatriate  could hear when back in Blightyon a tight timescale: 'well, that was lovely. When can we do it again?'  Not a chance, not this trip. Too many babygros, disposable nappies, books, clothes to buy before setting off for more months in a climate that gobbled up fabric, paper, electronic equipment, and where the lowly apple acquired caviar status, and was pounced upon in the Lebanese supermarket, even though it wasn't all that nice, and cost about five quid!

I worked, though. I learnt the meaning of the words Necessity and Invention and applied it. I adapted myself to the market, acquired new skills, and came at old ones from a new angle. 

We lived in Sierra Leone, Kenya and Cameroon, before moving to spend nearly three years in a beautiful nineteenth-century maison de maitre by the lakes in Ixelles, in Brussels.

Sierra Leone

  • ran the publicity department at the British Council (pay, £1.24 an hour) and worked on the visit of Wimbledon Football Club the year they won the FA Cup. VInnie and Me? Like that, we were, although he did leave thinking my name was Liz.
  • devised a course on journalism for women, which was really good fun.
  • Local radio and BBC World Service reporting, encouraged by the wonderful (and now alas, late) Dorothy Grenfell-Williams.

    "I liked Sylvia as soon as I met her, and my sense that she was woman of real ablity was borne out by the quality of the work she produced for us. She writes well and has an attractive radio manner. Both in radio interviews and in real life. she is a good listener, and responds with straightforwardness and a pleasing radio manner. I have been particularly impressed by how eclectic the rangs of Sylvia's interests is. Her mind is flexible and her enthusiasms are varied."

    Dorothy Grenfell-Williams, Head of the BBC African Service

  • wrote for The Independent,
  • ghostwrote a book for SIdgwick and Jackson,
  • produced The Shell Guide to Sierra Leone (not a lengthy volume, but interesting to do).
  •  helped set up The Conservation Society of Sierra Leone by raising money and helping equip a resthouse for visiting scientists.

Kenya

  • The United Nations
    Environment Programme (UNEP)

    "I found [Sylvia} to be efficient, competent and diligent...[her] ablity to work to tight time schedules and to produce material on technical subjects which was both accurate and intelligible to the lay reader were invaluable. Her common sense apporach her her willingness to seek further information to ensure she had completely understood the technical material she was editing meant that her output was scientifically accurate as well as being able to be understood by the intelligent reader without scientific training. "

    Philip Woollaston, Policy Advisor to the Executive Director of UNEP
    and Mayor of Nelson, New Zealand

    "The 1992 [Annual} Report {of the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme] was a special one since it covered the first twenty years of the life of UNEP and was particularly challenging since the layout, content and appearance of the Report were changed from all previous issues. Ms Howe worked on her assignments with diligence, enthusiasm and great professionalism. Her ideas about the text and layout were innovative and stimulating and the final product is a very nice issue of the Report. "

    Hanne Laugesen, Officer in Charge,
    Conferences and Governing Council Service, UNEP

  • Habitat (UNHCR)
    translating from French to English
  • ICRAF - the International Centre for Research into Agro Forestry
  • DFID - the British Government's Department for International Development
  • Msafiri - Kenya Airways' magazine
  • Executive Magazine (food critic)
  • Homes and Gardens

Cameroon

  • UNDP
  • DFID
  • Novel: Feverfall

Brussels

  • The European Commission
    The Courier, a magazine for the Directorate General for Development, in French and English, with 70,000 international subscribers.editing, redesigning, representing, writing for, commissioning journalists, managing an international team
  • The Bulletin, the Brussels English-language magazine
  • The magazine for SABENA Airways