Making up stories has always been special to me. When I was young, I was very poorly. I had a brain stem stroke, which meant I had to spend some time in the hospital.

I quickly learned that imagining I was tracking down treasure or exploring a mythical land was much more exciting than what was happening around me! This taught me how important stories could be, and how they have the magical ability to whisk you away into new worlds (which is handy when yours isn’t so good).

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When I eventually got a bit better, I was able to go back to mainstream school. I had my ups and downs, but in the end, I came away with good enough grades to get into university. I studied Creative Writing at the University of Derby and a Creative Writing MA at Nottingham Trent University. During this time, I studied things like fairy tales, magic realism, early child development, Norse mythology, and the old Icelandic sagas.

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After that, I published my first book, Scrapbook of Dreams, a collection of short stories and poems for children. I had always wanted to write a book for charity, and this was the perfect opportunity. All of the royalties from this book went to the Alliance for Inclusive Education, and then later, to buy books for primary schools in the Nottinghamshire area. Since then, I have published two more books, Norse Tales and Tales from the Volsunga Saga.