Biography

I was born in 1983 and grew up in south-west England, where I attended Sidcot School by virtue of a very generous academic scholarship. I’m not and never have been a Quaker, but Sidcot’s Quaker ethos—appealing to a goodness in all people—made its mark: I still try to live up to the principles of tolerance, understanding, and self-scrutiny it promotes, and I miss the silences of meetings for worship (though I’m not and never have been religious). A love of reading, cultivated by my parents and consolidated by my English teachers, eventually took me into the profession of literary studies. I was the first person in my family to go to university and I’ve been fortunate in the intervening years to find employment in the university sector. Beyond academic work, if I’m not reading books, watching films, or playing video games I’m often listening to nineteenth- and early twentieth-century classical piano music, or fulfilling my hallowed function as servant to my two young children. My favourite composers for the piano are Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, and Rachmaninoff, though I enjoy many more. As a writer I’m represented by Matthew Marland, of Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd Literary Agency.