Hello, I’m a writer based in Sunderland in the North-East of England, and am represented by the Liverpool Literary Agency. I’ve sold over thirty short stories; some of those have won awards or been reprinted in anthologies and my short story ‘Birds of the Mountain’ was second in the 2019 Costa Short Story Award at the Costa Book Awards. My novel ‘One of Us’ is published by infinityplus,  I’ve won a Northern Writers’ Award, and been shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award, and the Bath Novel Award. I’ve also written a short play which was professionally produced.

I led writer development activities since 2014, though after nearly ten years am stepping away from this. These have included being founder and Creative Director of two month-long Festivals of Creative Writing, the last of which drew over 500 people from all over the north easy to masterclasses, workshops, and performances. I founded and run the Holmeside Writers group, which has now run continually for seven years, and regularly draws over twenty people to its meetings, and has included masterclasses and discussions with novelists, playwrights, performance poets, graphic novelists, and directors of physical theatre. I co-chaired the Sunderland chapter of arts and culture organisation “WhatNext?” and am a Sunderland Creative Development Fellow. I was an invited judge for the last three years of the ‘Sunderland Shorts’ short film festival.

Outside writing, I work in higher education, and am a Senior Volunteer and the joint Coastal Debris Campaign Coordinator for the Captain Paul Watson Foundation UK, and a newly trained Marine Mammal Medic for British Divers Marine Life Rescue. Always the sea. Always.