So often in Publishing, agents are seen as faceless gatekeepers standing in between authors and their dreams (traditional publication). I'm here, partly, to show you that I am also a real person. So in that spirit, I thought I'd share a few facts about me, that aren't related to books or Publishing:

-I very nearly went to Art School instead of university. I used to paint oil on canvas and wanted to study Fine Art, but I messed up my A-level and didn't want to spend the year re-doing it whilst my friends were off having fun at Uni, so switched to a Humanities degree (which I quickly swapped to Literature when I got there ...)

-I was a Primary School Teacher for two years in one of the poorest areas of the country. I saw inequalities and home situations that are beyond imagination for most of us and could talk your ear off about the problems with the UK Education system. We are really and truly in need of a serious overhaul of the system.

-I have two children who are the light of my life. Like many women, becoming a Mum fundamentally changed my understanding of myself. One of my children is neurodiverse and we're right at the start of our AuDHD journey with them. I've loved learning about neurodiverse brains and it's a subject I'm passionate about.

-My Mum has Multiple Sclerosis. I grew up caring for her. She was diagnosed before there were drugs to slow down the progression and has done amazingly well considering. I was always told I had a low chance of developing it but in 2022 I had my first relapse and in 2023 I was diagnosed with it. Day-to-day, it doesn't affect me beyond getting a stiff neck and pins and needles in my left foot sometimes. To look at me you'd never know I have it and I am so fortunate that I seem to have a slow processing type. But it *can* progress silently and it's never far from my mind that I could wake up one day having lost the function in my right leg, or gone blind in one eye. Truly, it's taught me to slow down and prioritise myself when I need to.

-Lastly, related to the point above, I'm a big believer in us all having agency to make small, meaningful difference, by doing things like emailing our MPs on things that matter and joining local activism groups; I know the world feels scary, dark and uncertain now. But we do also have to look after ourselves. I have had a lot of chats with people recently who are feeling hopeless and depressed about our world situation and I totally get it. But the old adage that we have to put on our own oxygen mask before anyone else's is true - we need to look after ourselves first before we can change anything and I think that should be the energy that we're all taking into 2026.