Please would you take some time to answer the following questions:
We are trying to build up an online portfolio of what past pupils of Glan Afan are doing now. We would be very grateful for your contribution; hopefully it will inspire Glan Afan pupils to similar great things.
Name: Valerie Billingham (Carr)
Time spent in Glan Afan:
Start: / 09 / 1972 / Finished: / 06 / 1979 /
Where did you go / what did you do after you left Glan Afan? Did you need further qualifications?
I went to the University of Birmingham, to study Ancient History and Archaeology. I got a BA (First Class) in 1982, and a PhD in Egyptology in 1987. While I was studying for my PhD, I taught extra-mural classes in Egyptology for Birmingham and WarwickUniversities – great fun. Teaching others is the best way to learn.
In 1988, I entered the Department of Health as a fast-stream trainee, and spent twelve years as a civil servant working on a wide range of Government policy, dealing with Ministers and Secretaries of State, leaders in the field of science and medicine, industry and consumer groups, ethics and the law, and in one job an actress and a bishop. I took a Bill through both Houses of Parliament and turned it into an Act (the Food Safety Act 1990), wrote the world’s first ever statutory code of practice for infertility treatment centres and embryo research centres (at the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority) and was lucky enough to spend a year as a Harkness Fellow of the Commonwealth Fund of New York, seconded to the staff of the University of California at San Francisco. I did a lot of writing: Ministerial submissions, public policy and consultation documents, explanations of Parliamentary bills, press releases, briefing papers, etc, and carried out lots of public speaking engagements. I was secretary to many high-level Government committees, led small teams of up to eight staff and held budgets of up to £250 million.
I had a career break for a couple of years to write my first novel, The Voyage of the Sun God, which is a historical novel set against the background of the harem conspiracy against Ramesses III. It was published in German in 2001 as Die Reise des Sonnengottes under my pen name, Susan Llewellyn; bizarre, because I’ve written it but I can’t read it. I haven’t given up the quest to find an English language publisher. I have a second novel in second draft and notes for lots of others.
I then had a go at management consultancy and a couple of other things, but they were transitional.
What ambitions did you have in school? Have they changed?
I wanted to be an archaeologist and a writer. I’ve achieved both of those, but haven’t (yet) succeeded in making them pay the bills. I’m not going back to archaeology now, but I will carry on writing fiction with an Egyptological background. Not many people get their first novel published, even if it is in German, so I’m optimistic.
What are you doing now?
The day job now is as Commissioning Adviser at the British Heart Foundation, which allows me to use my background in health policy to try to influence the people in the NHS who plan health services.
Would you like us to make a link to your website/ place of work/ College?
You may want to have a look at my blog, which will teach you a bit about hieroglyphs: Bear in mind you have to read it backwards, or you’ll get really confused!
The British Heart Foundation website is at:
What advice can you give any pupil who might want to do the same as you?
Figure out what you really love, then if you work hard to become good at it, it won’t feel like work.
What are the most exciting aspects of what you are doing now?
Seizing the opportunities of the Internet to change the way I work.
If you would like to include a picture of yourself, please attach it with your email
Please return this completed form to
Luke Jenkins & Joseph Devries– Glan Afan Website Development Team