I grew up in the countryside near Oxford, where I cultivated a love of literature, storytelling, and the natural world.

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I left to study English Literature at Newcastle University, eventually writing a Ph.D. on mid-twentieth-century romance novels. Some of my research was discussed on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour in 2020.

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I've spent more than a decade working in bookshops, including for Waterstones, Blackwell's, and the London independent Heywood Hill, where - as well as looking after the shop's online communications - I was a personal bookseller. 

 

I now live in Oxfordshire with my husband and daughter.