EVE BONHAM: Biographical Information
Eve Bonham was born in southern England, went to school in the Midlands, and to university in Ireland. After achieving a MA degree in English at Trinity College, Dublin, she went to Thailand for two years to teach in a language school in Bangkok. While living in South East Asia she explored Laos and Vietnam (during the war), Indonesia, Malaysia and Burma and then spent many months backpacking alone in Nepal, India, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, finally making her way home to Britain. Other overland travel has included traversing North America by bus, journeying around South America, and learning about art whilst wandering round Italy. Passionate about paintings, she visits galleries and exhibitions wherever she travels.
Returning to England, Eve completed a Business Management course and joined Bonhams Fine Art Auctioneers, and in due course became, at that time, London’s only woman auctioneer. After a few years, in her quest for new and diverse experiences, Eve moved on to teaching adult literacy in Southwark, wholesaling Italian jewellery, framing pictures in Wiltshire, and running a boutique in Bath, whilst still undertaking public relations work for the auction house.
Eve has been a competitive swimmer, did athletics at her university, has played squash, climbed mountains, and been a keen walker. But messing about in boats has been her love. She learnt to sail in a small dingy as a child in the Isle of Wight, progressed to yacht racing in Cowes and other regattas, and then moved on to Ocean racing, sailing with Clare Francis in the Round Britain Race and with a full crew aboard a 65ft boat in the 1977/8 Whitbread Round the World Race. Eve then competed as skipper in two-handed races across the Atlantic in 1981 sponsored by British Telecom, round Britain again in 1982 sponsored by Sichel Blue Nun, and the 1983 Azores and Back Race in which she took her mother as crew!
After this Eve took up professional lecturing, and free-lance journalism. Returning to London, she became the UK Campaign organiser for the 1987 UN International Year of Shelter for the Homeless. Eve has always had a special interest in the problem of homelessness, and still undertakes voluntary work in this field. By way of contrast, Eve is currently a non-executive Director of a London property investment company.
After her marriage, Eve left England with her husband and two small children to live in a small Breton village in France. Then the family sailed away for a year in their wooden boat to the Canaries and across the Atlantic to the West Indies, and back again via the Azores. After fourteen years in France, which included further sailing odysseys to the Mediterranean, the Baltic, the Caribbean, to Venezuela, and the Atlantic coasts of America and Canada, the family have returned to England. They now live in Dorset.
Previous writing has included articles in fine art publications, sailing journals and other magazines. Eve is a dedicated letter writer, has scribbled in diaries for years, invented tall stories for her children, and told tales throughout her life. She is the author of many short stories, the ideas for which come from experiences and encounters in her adventurous life. Her first collection entitled: “Madness Lies and Other Stories” was published in September 2008. She is a passionate devotee of the short story as a pithy, punchy form of fiction, loved by the reading public, but often neglected by publishers. She has recently completed her first novel.
A few years ago Eve became a committed Christian, and this has profoundly altered her views on life and eternity. Her faith, her family and friends have first call on her time and love, and writing is her main occupation. Other projects and interests include planting specimen trees, growing organic vegetables, dabbling with watercolours, assisting in a refurbishment project for the local village hall, watching other people and reading good books.