
I live in south-east London and have spent over twenty years working in secondary school English teaching, local authority consultancy in Tower Hamlets and Hackney, initial teacher training for Teach First, and educational resource writing. My freelance work has led to my writing for the National Strategies, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and the National Literacy Trust and for the publishing houses Hodder Education, Harper Collins and Balberry Publishing (York Notes).
After school I studied English Language and Literature at Oxford University (1994) and went on to complete a PGCE (1995) and a Masters at King’s College London in English and Education (2003). For my MA dissertation, I wrote about the self-initiated personal and creative writing practices of children and adolescents. I have a coaching accreditation from Relational Dynamics 1st (2019) and am currently studying for a postgraduate diploma with QCD in Career Development at Canterbury Christ Church University. I am a member of the Society of Authors and a student member of the Career Development Institute.
I have always written creatively, particularly poetry and – more recently – children’s fiction. I am interested in the role played by personal and creative writing in the lives, identities and wellbeing of people from all walks of life and of all ages, and in the space that coaching – and specifically career coaching – provides for imagination, exploration and self-actualisation. My blog ‘Careering’ is a space where I explore both literature and careers, and the endlessly fascinating overlap between the two.