IT'S not often a qualified archaeologist retrains to become an accountant.

But that's what Liz Brierley did, and now she is a partner at the Bournemouth office of Saffery Champness in St. Stephen's Road. The independent top 20 firm of chartered accountants has offices across the UK and Guernsey.

So why the change?

"I have an archaeology and ancient history degree and prior to the change was living in London. It dawned on me archaeology was never going to give me a permanent job and although I loved it it couldn't get me a mortgage or a car either! All archaeological jobs are three-month posts involving living out of a rucksack. This was great for a while but I had to do a proper job and grow up."

It was the 1980s and her boyfriend at the time was applying to become an accountant which she thought was a thoroughly boring prospect. "He said to me you've got a good maths A-level and science A-levels - you'd get into KPMG. So I filled out the form, didn't take it very seriously and even spilt wine over it."

But her apparent indifference paid off because she secured a place with the firm. "But I wanted to look at what else was available so went for an interview with Baker Tilly in London because they did a lot of showbusiness work. I sat next to a renowned impersonator who had brought his books in - so I decided that was more fun even if I did have a week's less holiday and £250 a year less than KPMG was offering. Baker Tilly soon increased this though."

She started training to become an accountant in 1988. "Prior to the change I'd worked for English Heritage in their conservation department and would spend days cleaning mud off Roman coins with a scalpel - doing nothing but cleaning them - now that makes accountancy look very interesting!

"It's quite a slog to do the accountancy exams though. You're doing them in your own time and trainee work is quite repetitive. But once you get to a level where you are number crunching and you start advising on tax and businesses - how to grow businesses and the private client side of things - client families and investments - it becomes more interesting.

She added: "You're a trusted team member dealing with people's finances. It's very confidential. I enjoy that."

Prior to this Liz worked for Edwards and Keeping in Dorchester where she had been since 1992, becoming a partner in 1997. That firm had six partners and Liz dealt with the estate and agriculture side - the area she is now responsible for at Saffery Champness.

She added: "Saffreys also deals with the commercial side, including corporate finance and mixed portfolios."

Liz is a horse lover too. "I enjoy riding and in fact my best ideas come whilst on horseback - I've solved many tax problems while out cantering."

But once an archaeologist, always an archaeologist: "When I left digging I didn't give up completely.

"I'm going to Machu Picchu in the next couple of years. I'd love to go to Egypt too and still have archaeologist friends," she added.

Liz is chairman of the Dorset committee of The Game Conservancy Trust, based in Fordingbridge. "We do a lot of work for charity, conserving wildlife through wise use of land."

She is married to a police helicopter pilot.