At 15 she was enlisted by her father to ‘The Dawn Academy’ a finishing school for young ladies, where she learnt how to lay a table, deportment, elocution and etiquette none of which she was very good at!

A bit of a rebel Nina diverted and went onto the beauty queen circuit and became Miss Poole, Miss Bournemouth and Miss Southampton. During this time she was approached by a local councillor, who offered to sponsor her in the Miss Great Britain competition. She came 7th. He arranged for Nina to attend a local department store to obtain swimming costumes, stockings, high heels and false eyelashes a must for all beauty queen contestants. He also provided her with an all singing all dancing ford Capri, so she learned to drive. Nina passed her test first time and knocked a poor old guy off his bike an hour later!

Nina then went on to cross the invisible line and entered the world of high fashion appearing in Vogue, Cosmopolitan and many more. The story goes that she was walking down Oxford street one day when she was approached by Chrysillis records, “Can you sing” they asked “Of course” she lied and there began ‘Blonde on Blonde’ Nina recruited her best friend Jilly Johnson and they were dubbed ‘Sexports’. They had a number one hit in Japan singing in Japanese! Nina’s Japanese stories are hilarious. In Europe they were very popular in the UK they were banned for being too raunchy!

After four wild years of being backed by people like Francis Rossi, living out of a suitcase and partying till she dropped, she met and married Rock legend Rick Wakeman. Life with Rick was akin to living with Ozzie Osborne. In short it was mad. Nina had two children with Rick, Jemma and Oscar who have a band of their own now she adores her kid’s, and she brought up Rick’s other three children. During her marriage she ran her own radio show on County Sound in Guildford, she ran a knitwear company she called Jemma Jumpers and raised pots of money for charity. After twenty years they are now divorced. Why, because another child appeared from America!

Nina currently has her own company on the Isle of Man called Nina’s People, she is an Image consultant and Life Coach. She runs teenage workshops for girls between 12 and 16 and pamper days for ladies, helping them to reach their true potential..

Nina has written two books, one a tongue in cheek look at dealing with being 40 plus but very informative, the other her is her auto biography.

She has lived life to the full but has retained her amazing looks and her sense of humour remarkably well!