“I joined Acremont House in Year 2 and stayed at King’s all the way through to Senior School, leaving at the end of Year 11 in 2007.
“I then went to King’s Canterbury for Sixth Form and then on to Trinity College Dublin, where I studied English Literature and graduated top of my class. I then completed an M.Phil in Medieval Literature at the University of Cambridge.
“After University, I worked in digital marketing and then cybersecurity. However, in 2018 I was selected to attend the Clarion West Writer’s Workshop in Seattle and it was something of a life-changing event. I eventually took a career break to focus on writing and so far it’s going well. My first book, The Offset, co-written with a friend, will be published in September 2021.
“I joined King’s Ely with my twin sister, Alex, and now we’re grown up and living in different countries, I appreciate how wonderful it was to see her every day (we were in the same classes for pretty much everything!). Because of that, all my memories of King’s are precious to me.
“I was probably a bit of a swot at school and I remember enjoying most of my subjects. I had a number of fantastic teachers along the way and still think of them often. Amongst them are: Madame Gordon-Jones, who was an incredible role model for the girls in Queen Philippa; Mr Buck, who was always kind; Mrs Schaniel, whose art tuition was second to none; Dr Tetley, who was wise and funny; Mr Young, who, with extreme patience, taught three of us off-schedule GCSE Latin; Mr Hodgson, whose delightfully rubbish jokes in Physics made my sister laugh like a drain; and Ms Smith, who gave our R.S. class a vital lesson about contraception and reproductive rights.
“King’s has an excellent music tradition and I had the same cello teacher, the lovely Mrs Porter-Thaw, throughout my time there. Although I was never sporty, in Senior School I took up Rowing with a couple of my closest friends and had an absolute ball. If it wasn’t for that, I would probably still loathe all exercise. Thanks to Ely Scheme, run then by Mr Nicks, I also got to try hill walking and rock climbing. Although I found the trips extremely challenging at times, they equipped me with a number of skills that I rely on to this day, and I’m incredibly glad to have had the opportunity.
“I wouldn’t be where I am now if it hadn’t been for Ms Dean candidly letting me know at the start of Year 10 that I couldn’t write. I’d always been a bookworm and loved English at school, but I wasn’t overly good at the subject (at least not consistently so). That changed utterly with Ms Dean’s guidance and I cannot say how grateful I am to have had her as a teacher.”