Originally from Cornwall, Rosie started travelling at an early age.

At six weeks her family moved to southern Africa. She lived for three years in what was then Rhodesia, followed by two years in South Africa.

When she was 10 the family went west and Rosie found herself going to school in Manhattan.

At Nottingham University she read French and German.

She then left the UK and spent seven years in Germany working as a freelance reporter for the BBC and Deutschewelle.

Between work she went on long train journeys across Eastern Europe where communism was just about to crumble.

When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Rosie was working as one of the launch team of BBC Radio 4's Eurofile, the UK's first weekly programme about Europe.

She specialised in the southern Balkans and has particularly fond memories of being one of the first Western journalists to go to Albania after the demise of Enver Hoxha; and of her cheek being grazed by a bullet as she drove into the Albanian mountains.

Rosie took a break from Eurofile in 1996 to work with the former prime ministers of Australia, Canada and New Zealand for documentaries about their countries and their relations with the UK.

In 1997 Rosie became the series producer of Asiafile, a boon for Rosie's colourful wardrobe which has now expanded to include a closet full of Indian saris, Pakistani shalwar kameez and Chinese qipaos.

Since then Rosie has been travelling the world for Crossing Continents, from the Maoist strongholds of Nepal to women's prisons in the USA.

She has also been presenting BBC Radio 4's arts programme, Front Row.