About me I was born in Aberdeen, and did my first degree in English Literature at Edinburgh University before hot-footing it to London to work as a journalist and then editor, writing for everyone from The Guardian to Mizz magazine. I then moved into book publishing, becoming fiction editor at Scholastic Children’s Books. The call of poetry (and home) was too strong to ignore, so in 2010 I took a Masters in Poetry at St Andrews, set up my own literary consultancy on the side, and then found gainful employment in the SPL - a wonderful place where I was always lurking anyway. Hurrah!

Contact me about our project to celebrate London 2012, The Written World, although I can also field queries on obscure pop groups.

My favourite poetry quote is ‘Oh give me a last life like this/this is bliss/ no this/ no, this’

My favourite poets are... many and varied. But I tend to fall in love with particular poems rather than entire collections – in the same way that you might like a band, but not all their music….

When not at work you’ll find me playing the piano, trawling charity shops, writing, plotting trips abroad.

My favourite biscuit is anything dipped in a lot of chocolate. Aside from Bourbons, which are sham chocolate biscuits, and frankly an affront to the biscuit community. My favourite cake is a cheesecake.

Me as a form of poem would be a sestina – I have a tendency to repeat things, particularly ‘is it almost time for tea?’ and ‘does anyone know what I did with that important piece of paper?’

One of the poems I carry is... parts of Four Quartets (am fascinated by ‘…the passage which we did not take,/Towards the door we never opened’) and MacNeice’s joyful, sprawling Snow. Life is suddener than we fancy it.