WHAT I DO NOW
I’m currently coming to the end of a two-year MA in Creative Writing from the Arts University Bournemouth. What a journey. Next? Getting on with the book that came out of the course.

SHORT STORIES
I write short stories and enter competitions, a compulsive habit that has so far bagged me a shortlist place on the Bath Short Story Award 2025. The pasttime is a great way of honing the skills needed for all written work. It’s all about discipline and creativity, and I love it. And I love the genre of short stories for the micro worlds they open up. Potted worlds.

LIFE BEFORE THE MA
I was a lifestyle writer, C for consumer, working across travel, retail, heritage, education, health, beauty, property and wellbeing websites. I created:
• new words for websites
• edits on existing content
• single pages (like a profile page, about page, product page)
• interior design stories, case studies, and testimonials
• blogs and articles.

HOW DID IT START?
My career began in a different camp. I went from a North London sixth form (Camden) to a Fine Art degree in printmaking in Hull (when Lawson was ‘Pearce’), but kept an eye on the journalism route. Every summer I found internships at magazines in London, taking a post-grad job as a typist in a features agency. That led to a short course in journalism, which set in motion my career as a writer and editor.

WHERE HAVE I WORKED?
I’ve freelanced for 30 years, but these companies contributed in a major way to my early career trajectory:
• Bristol United Press
• Emap Elan (Slimming Magazine)
• BBC Worldwide (BBC Good Homes Magazine)
• Publicis Blueprint (Asda Magazine)
• John Brown Publishing (John Lewis Edition Magazine)
I set up Wordfairy in 2018, creating content and offering an editing service. More details on my LinkedIn page.

SINGAPORE 2012-2017
From 2012 to 2017, I lived and freelanced in Singapore, landing a job as an editor on an events website. I was also a tour guide at The Peranakan Museum, and wrote a travel blog at partlycloudy.co.uk. You can find some of the posts here.

WHAT ELSE?
• Several writing courses at the Open University and Curtis Brown Creative. Being an older student is brilliant; if you get the chance, do it.
• Travel, holidays, culture. Who doesn’t love a spot of south-east Asian travel, a Greek beach, a Lisbon breakfast? Food, culture, scenery, people, books on beaches, train rides across different fields.
• Bring me a bowl and a whisk and I’ll whip up a cake. Nothing decorative, just a big Victoria Sponge with jam and cream.
• Singing loudly in the shower, musical lock-ins, pub karaoke, speaker up while cooking. Sorry, neighbours.
• Surrounded by family and friends: one husband, one son, one dad, one sister, one brother-outlaw, two cats, cousins, an aunty, an uncle, best friends who are also family. Lucky, aren’t I?
• There is so much to come, and I’m here for all of it, charting everything one blog at a time.