Born and bred in Cumbria, with John Peel as one of her ancestors, Sue could almost be said to be a professional Cumbrian. In that capacity she worked in local radio and TV for many years, and now writes regularly for Cumbria Life magazine.
Sue has been researching and peforming traditional songs, tunes, dances, folk plays, customs and dialect of Cumbria for over thirty years and is now consolidating some of this research on Cumbrian music in her PhD (of necessity, part-time!) with the History Department Cumbrian folk song and dialect.