All About Me

Salut!

I was born in Barking and grew up on the border of where London meets Essex in a small terraced house with my parents and my older brother. My mum had a part time job as a librarian before I was born and both she, and my dad, always encouraged me to read. If we had a couple of quid to spend on a treat, I would always wander to the books section in Woolworths or Smiths, and see what worlds I could travel to with the money I had.

I lived in Leeds in a former textile mill with Adam, my partner, but we have recently returned to Essex.

My mum, to this today, insists that I taught myself to read. I find that highly unlikely, but who am I to argue? Growing up I read everything I could get my hands on. I still remember the first time I read Noughts & Crosses; how I devoured it in a day and ran downstairs to shove it into my mum’s hands to read. Or when I bought The Curse of the Gloamglozer in the Romford branch of Smiths and instantly developed a book crush on Quintinius Verginix. Chris Riddell knows how to draw cutting cheekbones…

The itch of learning languages first got under my skin when my parents bought me Usborne’s First Thousand French Words and I went on to earn a degree in French and Francophone Studies from the University of Sheffield.

I lived in northern France for a year where I taught English. I worked in two primary schools in the tiny town of Saint-Amand-Les-Eaux, about thirty minutes outside of Lille. You probably haven’t heard of Saint Amand. Bonus points if you have! After my teaching job ended, I spent more time living in the centre of Lille and it is a city that will forever have a little piece of my heart. It is beautiful and unique and you most definitely should go there. Like right now.

Below are a few snaps of my time in France teaching, from “fan mail” from my students to making the most of the country - from walking the beaches of Normandy to climbing the clifftop village of Rocamadour and many, many trips to Paris.

After I graduated university, I had a brief stint as a PA in the City of London - where my battered Converse didn’t exactly go down well with the clientele - before moving into publishing. Since 2016, I’ve worked for the Writers & Artists website team at Bloomsbury Publishing, where amongst many other things, I managed our writing and publishing events until April 2022.

Below are a few pictures from some of the events I most enjoyed working on.
From L-R: Author Kerry Hudson leading a writing masterclass on Voice, poet Raymond Antrobus at our Open University event in Cardiff, submission process masterclass with literary agents at Google Digital Academy, and our fantasy fiction conference where I chaired panels - that’s me in the middle!

Since April 2022, I’ve worked part-time for the W&A website focussing on creating content and competitions. I used to live in Leeds, but am now based in Chelmsford, Essex, with my partner Adam.