Jolyon Gumbrell's Biography
Jolyon Gumbrell the author and editor of this website describes himself as an autodidact and journalist. The word autodidact means a self-taught person, being self taught has given Jolyon a good grounding in the subjects he writes about.Jolyon was born on the Isle of Wight in 1967. At the age of four he moved with his parents and brother to the village of Weston, near Hitchin in Hertfordshire. Jolyon began his education at the village school in Weston and later attended secondary school at The Knights Templar School in Baldock. Since leaving school at 16 Jolyon has had many different jobs, working as: a sales assistant in a jewellers shop, a produce assistant in a supermarket; a groundsman; a warehouse clerk; a shop assistant in a DIY store; an electronics assembler; electronics technician; and a scanner operator in the basement of a bank.
At other times Jolyon has been developing his writing skills as a journalist. He has been building up a portfolio with some of his work published in The Guernsey Press & Star, and the Purbeck Gazette as well as this website. He has added to his qualifications by studying French and German GCSE’s at further education college, and in 2005 completed An Introduction to the Humanities with the Open University which counts as a proportion towards a bachelor’s degree. At present he is continuing with his studies at the OU and working towards a BA (Honours) in History.
Jolyon would say an important factor in his training for journalism, has been to travel around Europe and build up an understanding of various countries. In the course of his travels he has visited the European Parliament in Strasbourg and the United Kingdom’s Parliament at the Palace of Westminster in London. He has also visited many of Europe’s museums and art galleries such as: The Louvre; and The Orsay Museum in Paris; The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam; The Uffizi in Florence plus many more. Jolyon Gumbrell now lives in Swanage, Dorset, England.
©Jolyon Gumbrell 2008