Avril says "I was born and grew up within a few miles of the centre of England, in a landscape where my family roots go back, at least, 600 years. My genetic mix is Norman, Saxon and Celt and this has given me, since birth, a powerful identification with, and a deep love for Britain, its history, its land and its stories. My early years were spent surrounded by loving parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Family gatherings were times of memories and story-telling, all told in a warm Warwickshire dialect that, both in sound and word, has been almost completely lost within the space of my lifetime".

She continues "My own family and work lives subsequently led me to make my home in other parts of Britain, including Cornwall but, after returning to the Midlands, my life changed abruptly in 1990 when, at the moment of an earthquake, I began to 'hear' or rather 'sense' an inner voice. To my astonishment, I became a channeller and the story of the resulting extraordinary eight years of meetings and earth-healing events, which led, finally, to the resolution of a 4000 year-old soul-group contract in Cornwall in 1998 is told in the book, 'The Clew' by Sylvia Ward with Avril Newey (pub. Abeon Ltd. 2003)".