A Writer, Facilitator and Community Builder.
‘Deeply moving and impactful storytelling.’
This is me.
I write to explore other perspectives that help us all see the world a little differently. My go-to forms are flash fiction, short stories, and memoirs, but I have also been known to dabble in spoken word poetry. I am currently immersed in writing my first novel, which interweaves themes of queerness, neurodiversity, and nature.
In 2024, I graduated from Bournemouth University with an MA in Creative Writing and Publishing and was presented with the Vice-Chancellor Award for most outstanding student. I won second place in the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize 2024 and was longlisted in the Fish Flash Fiction Prize 2025.
I love connecting with and supporting other writers of all ages and backgrounds. I freelance for ArtfulScribe, a not-for-profit writer development agency, working with children and young people in a term-time writing group, and recording the session in a weekly blog. Bourne Creative is the alumni community I set up for fellow MA graduates to elevate and support each other through monthly meetups. I have volunteered for, worked at and attended the Bournemouth Writing Festival, and I am the Fiction Editor for The Bournemouth Journal, a new online publication showcasing upcoming writers.
Writer Facilitator
Community builder
Blogger Editor
Volunteer Dream Seeker Inspirer
I was the quiet child at the back of the classroom, reading and trying not to be noticed.
I was an introverted girl who felt different from other children. Social situations overwhelmed me, and I was much happier playing in the fields behind my house or singing to my chickens. Immersing myself in nature gave me an escape from the confusing world around me, and later, reading books expanded my horizons.
As I learned about myself, I realised I could listen well and empathise with the experiences of others. I worked in social care as a support worker and manager, assisting adults with mental health issues and substance misuse, as well as young people leaving care. I trained as a counsellor in my twenties and used my skills voluntarily on helplines such as Rape Crisis and Samaritans. In my forties, I trained as a gardener, working in private gardens and sharing my knowledge and skills with a local learning disability charity.
Education was not on my family’s radar. One of my grandfathers was illiterate, and my father left school at 14. Women were expected to fulfil societal norms of marriage and motherhood. I chose a different path. I became the first person in my family to enter higher education and, thirty years later, returned to university to undertake an MA. My experience has shown me I can do anything with the right education, cheerleaders in my corner and heaps of motivation.
Nature and me.
Gardens are where life happens.
Gardening is in my genes. My great-grandfather, William, my grandfather, Ted, my father, Robin, and my aunt, Iris, were all gardeners. So, when I decided to become a gardener with little knowledge of plants, I am sure they all despaired. I began by volunteering and working in Furzey Gardens, a public garden in the New Forest. I then worked in private gardens and studied on a Royal Horticultural Society course. Over a decade later, I think I know what I am doing now.
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Gardening, plants and nature have inevitably entered my writing. I write about gardeners, use plants as metaphors, and ensure the natural world is featured in settings. Life and nature are inextricably linked for me, as gardens are, after all, where life happens.
Propagator Weeder
Identifier Listener
Pruner Digger
Nurturer Seed sower Custodian
Trailblazing Neuronature, a blended genre where neurodiversity meets nature.
My novel, Mock Orange, explores two genres, neurodiversity and nature writing, and how they blend to create what I term ‘Neuronature’. Nature writing typically describes the natural environment, but my novel takes this further by drawing on the connection between women, neurodiversity and nature as a metaphor. It reflects the importance of nature and gardening to autistic women and seeks to push the boundaries of nature writing, to examine personal challenges and societal issues.