It followed that, after being an alpine climber, biologist, dinghy sailor, photographer, peat-bog digger, collector of degrees and teacher, when Joyce finally turned her attention to writing, there was plenty of autobiographical material available. Her early writing includes: 'North Ridge of the Weissmies', The Ladies Alpine Club Journal (1967). 'The South-east Eperon des Cosmiques', The Ladies Alpine Club Journal (1972), 'Young Climbers and Natural History', Council for Nature, (c.1978). Later, under the leadership of Dr. Judith Turner of Durham University, and while studying for an MSc in Ecology, Joyce began the work which eventually led to her co-authoring several scientific papers under the general title: Studies in the Vegetational History of the Northern Pennines. These were: I 'Variations in the composition of the Early Flandrian forests', Journal of Ecology 67 (1979), 629-664. II 'An atypical pollen diagram from Pow Hill, Co. Durham' , Journal of Ecology 69 (1981), 171-188. III 'The mid-Flandrian forests', Journal of Ecology 71 (1983), 95-118. IV 'Variations in the composition of the late-Flandrian forests and comparisons with those of the early- and mid-Flandrian', New Phytologist 117, (1991), 165-174.

Joyce's move to the world of poetry was a big step and it wasn't clear that she would make a go of it, but bit by bit, she began to feel at home and tried to learn a lot. While she progressed from poetry courses in Adult and Continuing Education at Durham University to those just starting at Newcastle University, she was writing some of the pamphlets listed below. In 2002, she became one of the first students to be awarded an MA in Writing Poetry and, delighted with the opportunities available at Newcastle, under the expert guidance of Professors W. N. Herbert and Linda R. Anderson, she continued her studies.

She gained a PhD in Creative Writing in 2008. Her thesis: Dynamic Memory (the long poem and the poetics of autobiography), has subsequently been accepted for publication by Lambert Academic Publishing (Cologne, 2009). Copies are available at www.amazon.co.uk. Some of her work also appears in the poetry magazines Tears in the Fence and Other Poetry.

 Caledonian Pine Forest