ABOUT ME

Before settling in Cornwall in 2002, I did an English degree at Oxford University and a two year acting training at The Poor School in Kings' Cross, and earned a living (just about!) as an actor. I worked mainly in theatre and performed at venues including the Oxford Playhouse, the National Theatre, Theatre Royal Windsor, the Theatre Royal Haymarket and the back of my friend's Ford Fiesta.

Like many students and freelance creatives, I also did my fair share of temping, waitressing, teaching English as a foreign language, shop work, painting and decorating, babysitting, voice overs, selling strawberries at Wimbledon and dragging people off the streets for free hair consultations. I worked as a casting director and then as a PA to the artistic director of the Barbican Centre in London, a place where art, music, theatre, dance and film all exist under one roof. It was an inspiring environment certainly, but frustrating too as I spent all my time facilitating other people's artistic lives and had no time or energy left for my own.

When I moved to Cornwall I made a commitment to prioritise creativity. I had three children in quick succession and alongside bringing them up, renovating our house, doing airbnb, supporting and mentoring students in further education and lots of role play jobs, I ran drama workshops, danced with community groups, sang in a choir, founded my own theatre company, performed in a comedy series on local radio and increasingly focused on my writing.

I've been published in magazines and anthologies and regularly read my work at literary events and festivals. I co-write and perform with an ensemble of gloriously talented, funny and supportive women called 'Riot of the Freelance Mind' and my first YA novel, Zed and the Cormorants was published in April 2021 (Arachne Press).