Steve Thompson started his career in EFL in the nineteen seventies and spent four years as a VSO in Egypt and Thailand. Throughout the 1980s until he returned to the UK in the mid-nineties Stephen worked in a number of teaching, teacher-training and university posts in Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Gulf. Since 1998, he has worked full-time in a free-lance role as materials writer, consultant, teacher-trainer and chief examiner for a number of publishers and awarding bodies.