How it all began
We are Sheridan and Nikki. We met in our sons’ school playground in Reigate (Surrey) in 1995. We became friends and met often for cups of coffee and long chats. We realised we both enjoyed teaching and research and made detailed plans to start a new nursery in the area. When we were ready to launch the new nursery (to be housed in a double-decker bus), we looked around for a good place to advertise its opening. At that stage there were no magazines targeted to local parents. So we decided to produce a magazine.
Through talking to many other parents we realised that it was very difficult to find the huge variety of facilities for children that there were in the local area; so the idea of The Family Grapevine was born. We thoroughly enjoyed all the research and proudly produced our first magazine carrying the advert for the nursery. We received 14 replies for the nursery and hundreds of calls saying how useful people found the information we had collected. So, the nursery idea was shelved and we dived into becoming publishers.
We have never regretted this decision because we get so much pleasure from providing this useful and sometimes essential information. We are also very proud that there are now so many editions of this magazine, each run by dedicated and enthusiastic editors.
Sheridan and her partner Mike live with their ten children in Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire. She has a degree in Social Psychology and has been a Suzuki violin teacher, nanny, franchisee in the motor industry and negotiator for an estate agent. Her hobbies include collecting teasmades - she has the largest collection in the UK!
Nikki has one son and two dogs and lives in Wells. She is a maths teacher and prior to that was a management trainer, computer programmer and Organisation and Methods analyst. She enjoys walking, local history, genealogy and putting the world to right in the pub.