My maternal great-grandfather was Sir John Stainer,organist at St Paul's Cathedral, composer and writer of hymn tunes. I inherited his carillon which I enjoy playing.

Born in 1941, I grew up near Cardiff, where my father David Pennant was a barrister and later became a judge. My mother, Alice, was an accomplished pianist and clarinetist but devoted her energies to the family and various voluntary organisations. After working as a computer programmer in London for a short time, I married Seaton in 1963, had 3 children in the next 5 years and have never worked since!

Seaton did not like being cooped up in an office all day so we decided to opt out of the rat race and take up farming instead. First we chose to have a final holiday and after much preparation, set out on our African adventure. On our return, we bought an upland farm in West Wales where we reared suckled calves, grew fruit and vegetables, kept hens and goats, made our own bread and jam, sawed logs for cooking and heating, trying to be as self sufficient as possible and generally enjoyed a relaxed lifestyle. After a gap of 10 years we had another two children. On leaving school most of the children chose English universities and life in big cities and now live hundreds of miles away.

We are Servas hosts and sometimes have visitors from far flung places. I have been a magistrate for nearly 20 years. We now have a tenant rather than farming the land ourselves, so I have time for various other voluntary activities with Age Concern, Oxfam and Country Cars. My interests include digital photography, wildlife, gardening, dog breeding and bellringing.

In November 2005 I travelled to Ghana with the charity Opportunity International UK to see their work at first hand. I was impressed.

Here are photographs of my three brothers.

   Pyers Pennant (1939)   Christopher Pennant (1943)  David Pennant (1951)  

Family page l Homepage l Seaton l Pyers l Chris l David l My grandchildren