Kay Sexton spent more than a decade as a house writer for charitable/environmental organisations worldwide. Her publication credits range from H&E; International to France Today to the World Water Forum Annual Report. She is also a Jerry Jazz Fiction Award winner with columns at http://www.moondance.org and http://www.therundown.co.uk. She also writes as Ren Holton: her speculative and science fiction persona. Between them, Ren and Kay have had more than fifty short stories published in the past two years. Kay teaches fiction writing, as well as copywriting and editing just to pay the bills. Her website http://www.charybdis.freeserve.co.uk gives details of her current and forthcoming publications. Kay has recently returned from her October residency with the Red Gate Gallery in Beijing. Her current focus is �Green Thought in an Urban Shade� a collaboration with the painter Fion Gunn to explore and celebrate the parks and urban spaces of Beijing, Dublin, London and Paris in fiction and images. In addition to the Red Gate Residency, the project has been awarded an exhibition at The National Botanic Gardens in Dublin to coincide with Chinese New Year in February 2006 as well as gallery shows at the Oh! Art Gallery in Bethnal Green 1 December 2022 � 8 January 2023 and the Waterloo Gallery in June 2006. The project also has high-level endorsements from major figures in the environmental world. �By 2050, it is estimated that 80% of humankind will live in cities. For hundreds of millions of people, that will entail a daily diet of noise, dirt, pollution and congestion - a physical and spiritual wasteland of staggering proportions. In that world, urban green spaces will play a critical role, literal oases in the wasteland, precious intimate life support systems for all those stripped of any other contact within the natural world. This highly innovative project speaks directly to that need in four great cities, with an extraordinary potential both to inform and inspire.� Jonathan Porrit � Chair, UK Sustainability Commission and Director, Forum For the Future. I am delighted to see the way in which the "Green Thought in an Urban Shade" programme is developing. Urban green spaces are so important for the spiritual life and sanity of city dwellers and anything to encourage their use is a good thing. Kay Sexton's efforts with this initiative will help to broaden our understanding of the role of parks in improving the quality of life of city dwellers. I am particularly glad to see these spaces inspiring new works of art and really look forward to seeing the final collection. As a former botanic garden director I am so aware of the potential of green areas to improve the quality of life and anything to promote the importance of this aspect is a good thing. Professor Sir Ghillean Prance FRS, VMH - Former Director, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Scientific Director, The Eden Project