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 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, nearly thirty years later, returned to university to undertake an MA. My experience has shown me I can accomplish anything with personal determination and cheerleaders in my corner.
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 hope they were all secretly pleased. I began by volunteering and working in a public garden in the New Forest, as well as in local private gardens. Studying on a Royal Horticultural Society course gave me the theoretical underpinning I needed to understand more. Fourteen years later, I still gain great satisfaction from working in nature and helping people make the most of their outdoor space.
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Gardening, plants and nature are inevitably featured in my words. I write about gardeners to explore life events, use plants as metaphors to enrich descriptions, and utilise the natural world as a setting. For me, life and storytelling are entwined with nature. As my aunt once said, gardens are 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, blends two genres, neurodiversity and nature writing, to create what I term ‘Neuronature’. Nature writing typically describes the natural environment, but my novel takes this a step 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.