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I grew up in Chelmsford, Essex, and attended a comprehensive school known by the nickname 'Bog Rolls'.

Charles Dickens once said that Chelmsford was ‘the dullest and most stupid spot on Earth’. The nerve! No wonder he hasn’t dared to publish anything for over a hundred years.

As a child, I wrote many stories, the first of which was ‘Mummy’s Book of Cats’. It was mostly pictures of... guess what? PLOT TWIST: page two had dogs on it. 

 

I loved reading, and I really wanted to be a writer. But unfortunately, more urgently, I needed to earn money.

So I worked at a boarding kennels, in a hardware store and at a doctor's surgery before going to university. After that, I worked at two London publishers, then became a freelance copy-editor. 

 

When my sons were born, I remembered how much I loved writing, and started to do it again. 

In 2012, I was a winner of a short story competition judged by one of my favourite authors, Michael Rosen. That made me think that maybe, just maybe, I should carry on writing and see what happens. So I did.

 

My first book, for ages 8+, was published in 2020: The Orphans of St Halibut's. Next came my series for 11+: Bite Risk, and Python. My books have so far been translated into seven languages, and Bite Risk has been optioned for TV.

 

These days, I live in Kent with my writer husband, two sons, and a large, bouncing poodle.