I get asked a lot at festivals and events if I’ve always written and the answer (if I feel like telling the truth that day) is yes. The first story I remember finishing was about a family of field mice who made a nest in the corner of a corn field and were massacred by a combine harvester. I think I was about six years old then, my fiction hasn’t lightened up much since and I still think happy endings are a bit of a cop out.
I studied English at Uni, thinking it would help make me into a writer. I wrote and almost finished a novel about a woman who built a hot air balloon in her garden shed – and then some bastard broke into my house and stole the laptop I was writing it on. I’ve learned to back up more carefully these days. I went to work in a library, had a baby and decided it was now or never – so signed up for an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Manchester, clutching the first draft of the novel that would become A Kind of Intimacy. I started blogging around this time too.
Since then A Kind of Intimacy has been published in the UK, US and elsewhere and I’ve won or been short-listed for a number of awards for my blog. In 2009 A Kind of Intimacy was included in the Waterstone’s New Voices promotion and short-listed for Sam Jordison’s Not The Booker Award at The Guardian. In 2010 it was awarded the Betty Trask prize by the Society of Authors.
Reluctantly, I decided to stop being a librarian, and I now write, edit and teach full time. I’ve just finished my second novel, Cold Light. If you root around enough on this website you’ll be able to find out about my books and short stories, read about the other work I do – including how to hire me, should you wish to – read my interviews and reviews, and contact me with questions, compliments, insults and offers to buy me drinks. My blog, Every Day I Lie a Little, is the place to keep up to date with my day-to-day antics, and the calendar with my readings, events and workshops is in the footer.
Acknowledgements:
The profile picture was taken by Martin Figura and is used with permission. You may use it for promotion or publicity in print and online, but please credit Martin if you do.
