My love of ancient languages began at secondary school, where I studied Latin and Greek. I also developed a keen interest in etymology and the history of language at this time. At university I completed half of a master’s degree in these languages before switching to French and Spanish, in which I graduated a full MA. In 2004 I moved to Oxford in the UK, and during my seven years there, I took the opportunity to study representatives of all the branches of Indo-European in order to deepen my understanding of reconstructions of the Indo-European proto-language and the interrelations between the branches. I covered Old English, Old Norse, Gothic, Old Irish, Oscan / Umbrian, Mycenean Greek, Old Church Slavonic, Albanian, Lithuanian, Hittite, Classical Armenian, Avestan (Iran) and Sanskrit along with historical linguistics. Some I studied alone, but most by attending degree level classes at Oxford University. I even went on to look at Sumerian, Hungarian, Finnish and Karbardian (a North Caucasian language) to gain further insights from connected languages outside the Indo-European family. But I spent more time on Sanskrit than any other language (about two years), completing most of the requirements to Honours Moderation level.

I was a teacher of English as a foreign language for 15 years in New Zealand and various European cities, and took an interest in exploring the reasons for the many anomalies in our language. Living in Europe, it was very easy to visit many of the places associated with the great ancient literatures as well as archaeological sites in Ukraine, often considered the homeland of Indo-European. I currently live in Auckland New Zealand, where I grew up.