I grew up on Jayne Fisher's Garden Gang books, and ran an amateur newspaper and theatre company with my older sister in our childhood, heavily influenced by the James Bond and Carry On films!
I happily attended Godolphin School in Salisbury. I next went on to study English Literature at Cardiff University and because I enjoyed it so much, stayed on for a fourth year to complete an MA in The Teaching and Practice of Creative Writing. After this I taught English in China for a year - an incredible experience, worked in London for two years and subsequently did a PGCE in Bath.
My passions within English are therefore plays and creative writing, although sad poems always go down well too: Dylan Thomas's Fern Hill and Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night spring to mind. Favourite novels of mine include: Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights - (who could resist Heathcliff?) and William Horwood's Duncton Trilogy which has been described as: 'Lord of the Rings out of Watership Down'. Regarding plays I am quite fond of Samuel Beckett's bizarre Endgame and Pinter's The Birthday Party and Caryl Churchill's Top Girls.
When not teaching English I am an avid member of all things musical!