About Me

My mum was a children’s librarian. The local library - with its extensive children’s section - was a ten second walk across the road from my primary school. It was after school, in that amazing entire upper floor, full of every sort of book you could think of, that I discovered the worlds of King Arthur, Mildred Hubble, the Baudelaire orphans, Mister Toad, Bilbo Baggins, Alice in Wonderland, Winnie the Pooh and many more.

At secondary school I spent English classes reading Pride and Prejudice, Lord of the Flies and developed a love of Shakespeare. At lunchtime I delved into Point Horror and Lyra’s Oxford. I even crept into the section of the school library meant for the sixth formers as early as year 10, where I was bemused by how much of The Hunchback of Notre Dame’s wordcount was dedicated to architecture, and even got through some Ben Elton and Clan of the Cave Bear! The first hints of the Romantasy bloom - Twilight and later The Hunger Games, were forever in my peripheral vision. And thanks to ITVs many Agatha Christie adaptations, I started craving murder mysteries.

But it was long before any of that, that I knew I wanted to be a writer. The moment I registered that the name (or names) under (sometimes above) the title of a book was the name of the person (or people) who had made that book, I knew that was what I wanted. So I wrote. And I wrote. And I wrote.

Learning that creative writing degrees were available was the best thing I could possibly have learned at age 16, and just a couple of years later I set off for Winchester for four years learning the craft of creative writing and all about the publishing industry from amazing tutors, including children’s authors Judith Hennigan, Judy Waite and Vanessa Harbour. I was a staple presence in the last years of the Winchester Writers Festival as a bookseller and an attendee, and I met many lifelong friends and writing pals there (some of whom I play D&D with at the weekends).

Being in Winchester led me to my first professional writing credit, as one of the six-strong writing team for Foot in the Door Theatre’s From Mansfield with Love, a Youtube and social media-based adaptation of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, written and filmed in the city where Jane spent her last weeks, and on-location in some of the cities featured in the original book. You can find the link to the 100 episode series and supplementary videos in the playlist linked in the Experience and Qualifications sections below, and look out for me in the background in episodes 6 and 99!

After working across school and public libraries and in perhaps the oldest bookshop in the UK, curating the children’s department and running book fairs, following the lockdowns I made my way into professional editing. I began as an intern for Thames & Hudson Ltd. in London and soon became Assistant Editor for the children’s list, editing the last two titles in Gabby Dawnay and Alex Barrow’s If I had a… series, Michael Foreman’s Little Mo and the Great Snow Monster, Balthazar Pagani’s How to be a Manga Artist and titles in the Brainiacs STEM and Mini Artists craft series. I have also assisted on titles in the award-winning Wild Wonders series by Jennifer N. R. Smith, Alice Melvin’s Mouse books and several Yuval Zommer titles. My work with Thames & Hudson has also let me develop and refine my marketing and sales skills, with A.I. (Advance Information) sheet and blurb writing becoming a speciality.

I am a member of the Golden Egg Academy Club, having completed their twelve month Writing for Children and Young Adults course in 2024 and remain eternally grateful for the advice, networking opportunities and continuing live sessions and seminars they offer, as well as the wonderful friends I have made whilst on their course.

A decade later and I’m still in Winchester, where I can sometimes be seen treading the amateur dramatics boards in productions ranging from Singin’ in the Rain to The Government Inspector, and two separate productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I am also the singer for rock band Hornblower Down, and you can find a link to stream our first album at the bottom of this page.