Wendy E. Hurley was born in Bristol and grew up in South Gloucestershire.
Leaving school at sixteen with two O levels in Biology and History, and having left home at 17, Wendy first worked for the NHS. She resigned to set up a market stall at the Bristol Corn Exchange and pull pints in the Granary Rock Club.
After a stint of unemployment, Wendy worked for a community programme and attended demonstrations specifically against the poll tax.
Later, working in the further education sector which included South Bristol College (now City of Bristol College), Wendy gained qualifications and experience in assessment, management, training, and development. In addition, she gained a certificate in Social Sciences with the Open University and for fun made a parachute jump from three thousand five hundred feet.
Moving to Dorset with her family, husband John and son Sennen, she worked as a Tutor, Assessor, Project Officer for Digital Champions and as an Assistant Curriculum Manager, focusing on the apprenticeship programme, with an Adult Community Education provider. In addition, Wendy was a member of the organisation’s sustainability steering group and was responsible for raising awareness at staff conferences and actively promoting environmental training opportunities.
In 2019, she joined Bridport Rebels’ Day Out to protest against climate change and occupy Waterloo Bridge in London as organised by Extinction Rebellion (XR).
Wendy completed a 6 year part-time degree course and achieved a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in English Literature and Creative Writing 2:1, again with the Open University in 2022.
She continues to write and her poem The Wagger was published in the Green Words Anthology of Natural Words from West Dorset. Her short stories, which give voice to working class characters, have been long-listed in a number of writing competitions. In addition, two of her 15-minute theatre scripts, one of which was shortlisted for the Barnstormers New Writing project, were read at https://www.dorchesterarts.org.uk/the-scripts-the-thing/
Last year, she was awarded a grant from the Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust to carry out a qualitative research project to champion women’s marginalised voices.
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