Biography

I was born in 1983 and grew up in the West Country, where I attended Sidcot School by virtue of a very generous 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 really do miss the lambent silences of meetings for worship (though I’m not and never have been particularly religious). A love of reading, cultivated by my parents and consolidated by my secondary school 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 very 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 usually listening to nineteenth- and early twentieth-century piano music, or fulfilling my hallowed function as servant to my two young children. My favourite composers for the piano are Beethoven, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff, although I enjoy the music of many more. As a writer I’m represented by Matthew Marland, of Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd Literary Agency.