Creative Writing

This is where you can find information and updates about my creative writing.

I published my debut novel, RITES, in 2012. It won the Arts Council England Next Great Novelist Award, and was published by Route Publishing in the UK and Kein & Aber in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. It’s about a virginity pact gone horribly wrong, and the legacies of a Catholic childhood. It’s sort of a coming-of-age story, sort of a psychological thriller, sort of a literary fiction. It won the Arts Council’s Next Great Novelist Award, and Philip Pullman said it was “intriguing, puzzling, and entirely gripping.”  Here are a few reviews from the Independent,  Sunday Express,  Daily Mail, and Yorkshire Post. You can buy it, if you’re so minded, here.

Since then, I’ve been working on (among other things) my follow-up – a literary thriller about motherhood and monstrosity, set in York one hot summer Friday in 2019. My narrative follows nine hours in the lives of Hollie and Alys, two very different women brought together by moments of madness. It investigates parallels between the psychological effects of baby loss and those of perinatal illness, and aims to contribute to a recent wave of powerful literature exploring the darker side of motherhood.

I am absolutely thrilled, and deeply grateful, to have been awarded two generous grants to support this work-in-progress. The first is a K Blundell Trust Grant from the Society of Authors. These grants are awarded to writers under 40 whose writing aims to improve social awareness – my award will buy me time to write away from other freelance projects. The second is a Developing Your Creative Practice award, funded by Arts Council England. These grants exist to support the creative and professional development of artists – my award will fund a mentorship, two consultancies, and some living costs including childcare. 

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