My debut novel, They Are Trying To Break Your Heart, was published by Bloomsbury in April 2016, chosen as a Netgalley book of the month, reviewed as ‘masterful’, (TLS), ‘searing’ (Los Angeles Times), ‘shocking’ (Publisher’s Weekly) and ‘compassionate’ (Kirkus Reviews). It was one of ten books longlisted for The Desmond Elliott Prize, the UK’s biggest prize for debut fiction.
In 2017, They Are Trying To Break Your Heart won the English Language debut novel prize in international competition at Le Festival Premier Roman, France.
Since changing career to focus on teaching, I have written two further novels currently on submission to publishers.
I have written for The New Statesman, Fiction Writers Review and Writer’s&Artist’s Online. In an eight year career as a documentary producer with the BBC, I worked across news and current affairs, making films for primetime on BBC One, Two, and Three in the strands Real Story, This World, and Panorama, as well as taking on stints as a desk editor for Radio 4’s World at One and PM.
As BA Programme Leader of Creative Writing (Multidiscipline) in the Northern School of Writing at Salford, I teach students the memoir, short story, and children’s fiction.
I am energized by a passion for reading and writing and I am currently researching barriers to reading for pleasure and the pedagogy of reading for pleasure. In 2024, I established The Northern School of Writing as a collaborative research and practice network.