Jude Calvert-Toulmin

Jude Dominique Calvert-Toulmin (born 10 August 1959) is an English author, publisher, actress and photographer.
Ancestry
Jude Dominique Calvert-Toulmin is descended from the same branch of the Toulmins as the controversial theologian and writer Joshua Toulmin.
Early life and education
Jude Dominique Calvert-Toulmin was born on August 10, 1959 in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. She was raised in Exminster, Devon and Welwyn, Hertfordshire, before moving to Sheffield where she attended Silverdale School, gaining 8 'O' levels. Jude then attended Abbeydale Grange School where she gained a further 'O' level and 4 'A' levels.
After leaving school in 1977, Jude undertook a foundation course in Art and Design at Psalter Lane Art College, Sheffield.
Jude studied Film and Television Production at Manchester Polytechnic School of Film and Television, graduating with an honours degree in Graphic Design in 1981.
Career
Photo-journalism
Jude moved to London in 1981 and worked as a freelance photo-journalist for the music press, having work published in Melody Maker, i-D magazine and indy rag Masterbag.
After having three children, in 2001 Jude returned to freelance photo-journalism, having articles published in the climbing magazines On The Edge and mountaineering magazine High Mountain.
Film acting
Johnny Yesno
Jude played the double role of Lorraine and the blonde. in Sheffield/L.A. film director first film, the influential cult short Johnny Yesno, the soundtrack for which was composed by Cabaret Voltaire, who were amongst the godfathers of techno.
Mercy
In 2011 Jude played the lead role of author "Jude" in the independent short film Mercy, written and directed by João Paulo Simões. The promotional blurb for Mercy reads:
"Mercy explores the notions of family and identity through the brief encounter between two women.
This unforgiving tale retains its ambiguity until the very last frame of the film."
In the early eighties Jude also acted in several films by post-graduate students at the Royal College of Art film school.
In the mid nineties she took part in a promotional film for the use of stem cell treatment in the treatment of cancer for the Weston Park Hospital, Sheffield.
Television
Come Dine With Me
On February 10th, 2012 Jude appeared in the Primetime Channel 4 show Come Dine With Me.
Music
Jude started learning piano at the age of seven and immediately started writing music. She played her first composition in front of an audience at a school assembly at the age of nine, but was so mercilessly teased by pupils not believing she had composed the piece, that she gave up piano and taught herself guitar.
She was the muse behind top ten hits Oblivious and Walk Out To Winter, written after her split with singer Roddy Frame.
In 1994, after splitting up with keyboard player Ian Burden, Jude started writing music again and formed the Sheffield band Venus Tree, who made the cover of SAM (Sheffield Alternative Magazine). Between 1994 and 1995 Venus Tree performed in various venues around Sheffield performing Jude's original material, with Jude on vocals and 12 string guitar, until shortly before the birth of her third baby.
Art
Throughout the late nineties Jude made mosaics and mosaiced water features which she exhibited at Open Up Sheffield.
Blogging
Waiting for the facility to pre-moderate user comments, Jude did not start a blog until 2006. The blog features interviews with musicians such as Gavin Clark and authors such as Michael de Larrabeiti.
Publishing
In 2008 Jude formed and became the director of the company Fleur De Lys Publishing Ltd, an independent publishing house using the new publishing technology of Print on Demand for the purpose of publishing literary fiction.
In 2008 Fleur De Lys published the erotic novel Mother-in-Law, Son-in-Law. written by Jude under the pen name "Julia", and in 2009 published the first in a trilogy by Jude inspired by her own life, My Adventures in Cyberspace. The novel is set partly in Sheffield and partly on a forum in the pioneering days of social networking at the turn of the millennium. The sequel My Adventures in Cyberspace II is due for publication in 2010.
Radio
Jude was interviewed about her writing in 2008 by local broadcaster Anita Guy on Sheffield Live 93.2FM, prior to setting up a publishing company.
Live Performance
Jude started performing excerpts from her novels in front of live audiences as part of Sheffield's open mic night Words Aloud in late 2007. Videos of her performances can be found on her
Since the demise of Words Aloud, Jude is now performing her writing at SpeakEasy, the open mic night hosted by Senior Lecturer in English John Turner at Sheffield Hallam University.
Jude started recording herself on camera in 1989 on Video 8 but only started recording vlogs for broadcast on the net in early 2009. Her vlogs can be seen on her.
As a fervent believer in supporting one's local community, in the summer of 2009 Jude performed at the inaugural Woodseats Literary Festival, Sheffield.
Photography
Jude has been taking photographs professionally for both the music press and the climbing press since the early eighties.
In June 2009 she exhibited several portraits of the singer Sade at the Mall Galleries, London as part of sculptor Guy Portelli's Pop Icons exhibition. Guy won funding for the exhibition after appearing on the BBC television series .
Personal life
Jude started writing a diary at the age of thirteen and never stopped writing. She spent much of the eighties writing her "Diary of the eighties" in London whilst on the pre-acid house music scene. She was also a busker at Oxford Circus tube station at the top of the Bakerloo line escalators, she was an anglicised Geisha girl at The Sonobe Japanese nightclub in Mayfair, and travelled extensively in Europe, teaching herself Swedish and improving her French and Spanish.
After graduating, Jude decided that she would spend her twenties having fun, her thirties having babies, her forties starting a career and her fifties travelling.
She has three children from her previous marriages, Hollie Amaya Toulmin Davis, Jodie Keiana Toulmin Davis and Jasper Jed Toulmin Veale, and a grandson Reece Hutton. Since 2002 Jude has found happiness and peace with her fiance and editor They live on the edge of the Peak District National Park, in Norton Lees, Sheffield, with their four cats Mojo, Frank Zappa, Little Girl Lizzie and Growler.
Jude and Brian have been involved in a project to landscape their 120 foot garden using only found materials for the past five years.
Jude is passionate about cookery, having taught herself to cook at the age of thirteen. She prefers Mediterranean and Asian cuisine. In March 2009 Jude was a guest on the Sheffield Telegraph's Food For Thought column.
Bibliography

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See Also

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