Valerie Mason-John - Biography

Biography

Mason-John spent her childhood ‘in care,’ i.e. in foster homes and childcare facilities, including the Barnardo's Orphanages in Britain with the exception of a short time spent living with her mother in her early teens. She dropped out before receiving her undergraduate degree in the eighties, but has continued to pursue post-graduate education and training into the present. Since the early nineties, Queenie has worked as a writer, performing artist and lecturer. More recently, Mason-John received a teaching certificate, and currently conducts seminars in anger management and conflict resolution.

After eighteen months of study in philosophy and politics at Leeds University during the nineteen-eighties, Mason-John studied post graduate journalism, earned an MFA in creative writing and diploma in theatrical performance at institutions such as Sussex University and The Desmond Jones School. By 2003, her interest in counseling and her ordination into the Western Buddhist Order led her to, in addition to writing and performing, focus on training herself and others in anger management and conflict resolution. In December, 2007, Mason-John was named Honorary Doctor of Letters by The University of East London. Mason John continues to write, work as a self-awareness trainer; she performs and lectures internationally.