Heather Murray

Heather Murray was born in Canada, but grew up in the United States. After receiving a B.A. in Classics, she worked in New York as a dictionary editor while figuring out what she wanted to do with her life. That was when she realized that her soul was European and left to take up a job in Switzerland, where she briefly and unhappily taught at a finishing school on the Lake of Geneva. The following year she moved to Zurich and has lived there ever since.

Over the next thirty-six years Murray gained an M.A. and Ph.D. in English Linguistics, lectured at the universities of Bern and Zurich, trained hundreds of Swiss English teachers and conducted research in linguistics.

Now retired from university life, she divides her time between getting outdoor exercise, traveling and writing. Or sometimes she does all three at once. She has hiked the Way of St. James (El Camino) in Spain and France, and cycled a number of European coastlines and rivers. Retirement has also allowed her time to reconnect with Latin and creative writing, which is when Travels In Cuba was born.

With a keen interest in international understanding, Murray has also become involved with people in two non-European countries, Cuba and Tanzania. She first visited Cuba as part of her university work, but has since returned a number of times to explore the country and the special spirit of its people, an interest which led to Travels In Cuba. In Tanzania, she successfully linked up a rural girls’ secondary school with a Swiss educational charity, enabling the school to expand enrolment and scholarships and win recognition for its students’ achievements on national exams. In July 2017 she visited the school, and is now creating a short film about it.