I joined Saatchi subsidiary Granard to work on Andersen Consulting's PR - a thankless task working for these high-powered consultants who organised 7am breakfast meetings! I also helped to win the IBM PR account for Saatchis.

I went on to set up my own consultancy IMAGE CONTROL, and when Andrew and I bought a big house in Offley Road I turned one floor into an office and was doing well enough that I reversed into a bigger marketing services agency called RHINO with plans to float.

One of the highlights of this period was our MIDSUMMER MASKED BALL when loads of our friends dressed up to Christen our new home. A smoke machine in the basement disco led the way for some disreputable clubs that followed!

However when the recession arrived Andrew and I divided the house into flats to let out to cover the mortgage, and Mike Mansfield, David Freedman and I took our PR firm back and formed The BUSINESS WORKS.

Mum, Andrew and I embarked on a fantastic round-the-world tour spending four weeks driving around New Zealand in a campervan. Other stops in Sydney, Hawaii and Los Angeles were just as much fun.

It was after picking up a lot of gay PR clients, and seeing a similar publication in LA, that I created the GAYtoZ DIRECTORY. Despite spending our last penny on the holiday the directory immediately took off. We would send out 100 letters and when a few advertisers sent back cheques that enabled us to send the next batch of letters.

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AROUND THE WORLD

Mum, Andrew and I in NZ

Diving on the Great Barrier Reef

Andrew and I ride the Cable Cars