Monique Chambers is 41, half Maltese and half British. She finally moved to Malta some six years ago. Her background is in marketing and Public Relations. She writes for various magazines and sites generally on food and leisure for shoe money. She also makes clothes, bags and accessories for fun.
Monique has recently become involved in an initiative called New Leaf, whose objective is to help preserve the books at the National Library and encourage the love of books through storytelling and so on.
In the UK she worked for Mars Confectionery for years and moved to a PR agency for a few more before starting her own company. This allowed her desk freedom, and the opportunity to write when the words came to her and fulfill other passions by day: flamenco dancing, researching British military history, writing for pleasure, publishing Indulge, renovating old houses and (slowly) learning Italian.
Her day starts early, sometimes at 4am but she wants to play in the afternoons so takes a break and starts again later at night when emails have generally stopped flying in. Luckily, she works pretty fast, she says.
Her partner, John, is involved with Rotary, so they spend a lot of time in Sicily and she tags along for business trips where possible. They love to sail and spend as much time as they can on the boat, which is aptly named, About Time. Life slows down a bit and they get the chance to catch up and just hang out together with varying backdrops.
Monique has a sister, Suzanne who moved here a couple of years ago; though they speak every day they hardly get a chance to see each other.
I love eating everything, though I wouldn’t eat insects intentionally. I’m addicted to popcorn in fact anything with butter on and I love cheese. I find it frustrating that restaurants in Malta don’t offer cheese as a course.
When I have some time to spare I enjoy experimenting in the kitchen and reading. I have a number of books on the go that I am writing and am looking forward to the Summer when a month on the boat means I will have ample time to make progress.
My favourite holiday destination is Malta – who needs holidays when there is so much to do here? I still drive past signs of villages I haven’t yet been to and wish I could clone myself so I could go to everything that I am interested in – date clashes and short runs of theatre etc., mean I miss out on lots. I take a day off a month to be a tourist. It’s the best fun!
One living person I admire is Theresa May, the British Home Secretary. She’s strong, realistic, and no-nonsense. We share the same ideals and she too has a fabulous collection of shoes!
A character in fiction I like very much is Toad from The Wind in the Willows. He’s a livewire, frivolous and fun. I re-read the book often. It makes for fantastic, adventure filled dreams.
If I could change one thing about myself it would be to like exercise. I’ve tried, and failed many times. I do want to run at least a half marathon before I die though. Just because it would be the hardest thing I will have ever done.
The writers I like best are A.A.Gill, Anne Tyler, Gavin Pretor-Pinney and Jeffrey Archer.
My dream job is to be a blues singer, but when I am 50. I still have so much to do before. One life is just not enough.
My kind of music is Blues, jazz and swing. Julie London, Sammy Davies Junior, Nina Simone are all on my recently played list. John claims ‘every musician I like is dead’. In my defence, I do have CDs up till 1984 but they are of much less cool artistes!
If I won the lottery I would buy a double fronted house in Valletta and finish the growing list of unfinished projects and half written books and dream up a story where I could spend hours in the National Library, researching.
My motto is: Life is short, so sleep when you’re dead.