Vanessa Miles

Vanessa Miles comes from a theatrical background. She also enjoyed a brief moment acting herself - two years at the Royal Shakespeare Company, in the West End and TV appearances. After her first child was born, she decided to write. This involved a stint at a newspaper - the groundbreaking Today piloted by the equally groundbreaking Eddie Shah - where she discovered a talent for journalism. This allowed a move to Capital Radio joining Michael Aspel's team on The Michael Aspel Show.

As a result of presenting and reviewing for Aspel, an idea for a book was born. 'A Capital Guide for Kids' became the handbook for busy mums and dads searching for exciting places to visit with the kids. A follow up book came the following year. This was 'What Can I Do?', a hands on manual for parents with young children and 'Castles and Dungeons', which looked at castle living in medieval Britain.

In 1996 she began broadcasting for LBC and as a result published, 'The Family Guide to London'. Her work as a journalist includes book and film reviews for various magazines. Later she moved to television and worked on Sky TV as their resident expert on customs and folklore.

As a result of her writing experience and work in radio, she was invited on to the 'after dinner' speaker circuit. Her topics have ranged from a light hearted account of her life called 'Flukes and Failures', to ' Celebrity, Celebration and Going For Gold which drills into the history of celebrity and the current obsessive interest in the lives and loves of the, 'rich and famous'.

A new talk is aimed at anyone interested in finding out more about their memory and how it works. It highlights the astonishing variety of factors that make us the individuals we are, with memory at the top of the list and explores why the task of creating a vast catalogue of memories isn't quite as straightforward as we might think.

Writer, broadcaster and after dinner speaker, Vanessa's latest book, Memory and How We Lose/Use It, is a lighthearted look at memory and what happens when it goes wrong