I grew up in London, and now live in Edinburgh. I’m a graduate of the MLitt course in creative writing at the University of Glasgow.
I have a PhD in astronomy and worked as an astronomer for several years at Imperial College. After that, I joined the civil service where I’ve held a variety of posts, including working in outer space policy. I’m currently working in marine renewable energy policy for the Scottish Government.
I write short stories and I’m working on a novel, ‘Wider than the Sky’, about a female astronomer who makes a ground-breaking discovery, leading to a professional and personal breakdown.
From 2007 to 2008 I was one of the editors of the MLitt course e-magazine; ‘From Glasgow to Saturn’.
I’ve been a writer in residence at the ESRC Genomics Policy and Research Forum, based at the University of Edinburgh, since 2008. Here, I’ve run competitions for short stories and poems inspired by genetics, and held workshops on fiction and writing for social scientists. I’ve also given public talks on the links between fiction, poetry and science.
I’ve been a guest reader on an Arvon course and I gave a reading of some of my flash fictions at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. You can listen to a podcast of one of them here. I’m a regular contributor to Lablit.
I’m a winner of a Scottish Book Trust/Creative Scotland New Writers Award for 2012.
