Nicky Perry

Nicky Perry was an Air Force brat who attended 14 different schools while travelling around the world with her parents. Settling back in the UK, she trained as a professional photographer and designer and has undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in media, design and education from Manchester and London. As a sideline she used to hand-rear rejected lion and tiger cubs: don’t tangle with her! Maintaining her passion for wildlife she wrote her first book, Symbiosis: Natures’ Partners and travels to see orang-utans in Malaysia and lemurs in Madagascar, whenever the chance comes up.

She taught at many of the best colleges around, with now-famous students including the cartoonist Steve Bell and the animator Nick Park. Lured into becoming an inspector in 1993, she went on to be a founder director of inspection with, first, the Training Standards Council and then the ALI. She is the only member still working of the small teams that devised both versions of the Common Inspection Framework and regrets that no royalties are payable.

• David Sherlock