I am a novelist and short-story writer based in the South West. My debut novel, The House of Broken Bricks, won the 2021 Bridport Prize Peggy Chapman-Andrews First Novel Award and is due to be published by Faber & Faber in January 2024. My writing focuses primarily on rural diversity and the relationships between identity, belonging and place. Currently, I am completing a PhD Creative Writing at the University of Exeter. The main objective of my research is the creation of a collection of reimagined folktales portraying ethnically diverse characters living in rural England, and the critical analysis of how folktales were, and continue to be, used as constructs for discussion around morality, social and cultural identity, and community. I will also explore, through the practice of creative writing, the relevance of folkloristic culture in contemporary British society. At present, I live with my husband and two children on the Somerset Levels, but will be moving to Exeter this coming summer.
