Dr Di Beddow
Born in Cambridge, I now live here once more and write, work and study from home. After the Cambridgeshire High School for Girls, I then graduated in English and History of Art at the Middlesex University. I then gained a teaching Certificate at Roehampton and an MA from the University of Warwick. My thesis was on the women of Henry James and I also studied Olive Schreiner and Elizabeth Gaskell. In 2021 I gained my doctorate from Queen Mary University London with the thesis: ‘The Cambridge of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath’.
I have taught in Surrey, Essex, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire rising to be a senior leader half way through my thirty-five years in schools. I have most recently been the Vice Principal and Acting Head at Hinchingbrooke School in Huntingdon and Headed up Ernulf Academy in St Neots for two terms whilst they were negotiating a little local difficulty. As an educational consultant I train senior leaders for the Association of School and College Leaders; do short-term senior leadership supply posts and also teach some ‘A’ level English to ensure I keep my hand in.
My passion is English Literature and particularly the work of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. I intend to study their work, relationship and environment when they were in Cambridge for a PhD. I am fascinated by the psychogeography element of their Cambridge period and have already visited Plath’s room in Newnham and the Hughes archive at Selwyn.
My proudest achievements are my boys, both of whom have already achieved astonishing success; Joseph Bond in sculpture and Billy Beddow in the coaching of basketball.