Another lambing done, another time capsule sealed until next year, when it’ll feel like no time has passed at all.
It’s hard to explain the feeling of having stepped out of the world for these three weeks, and the strange grief that comes with having to step back into it.
But I’m returning with more ideas and stories and plans than ever, so I’d better get to it.
SO excited that my short play Rita in 3C was chosen for @hooleytheatre 2026 Haddaway and Write! It was so special to hear everyone else’s incredible plays at our read through, and can’t wait to see them in all their glory on stage. Huge thanks to the brilliant team at @hooleytheatre - you guys are the best there is ❤️
Rita in 3C is a comedy set in a care home, inspired by the time I spent working in one during Covid (but don’t worry, there’s only enjoyable misery in this one!) I hope Rita is as fun to watch as she was to write!
Dates and locations in the next pic if you fancy coming along!
Still hasn’t sunk in that my horror play The Hanging Room won Live Theatre’s North East Playwriting Young Writer Award last week. Went to the award’s night after a long day of lambing, with aching legs and iodine-stained fingers, and wouldn’t have it any other way.
Thank you so much to @livetheatrenewcastle for the most beautiful award I think I’ll ever own. I can’t wait to see the journey my horrible little demonic play will go on from here.
I was taking this photo in the wood when I realised there was something at my feet - looked down and found a skull. It can only portend good things to come for a horror writer đź–¤
News!! Over the moon to have won the ClassicsFest 2026 Playwriting Competition — booking for my play and other ClassicsFest events are open now on the Lit & Phil’s website.
Having the best time writing this one, comedy-drama is a nice balance to the ghosts and ghouls.
Very excited to be working with @alphabetti_theatre and @litandphil ❤️
Today’s the day! Debut audio drama day! (Available now on BBC Sounds 🎧)
This project has been an absolute joy from the first word to the last, and all the wild places it took me in between. I’m so proud of it. Now a few soppy thank yous.
Thank you to @bbcwriters and The Alfred Bradley Bursary Award for believing in me and kind of changing my life.
Thank you to the dream team @nadiamolinari1 and @pip.day for everything you’ve taught me and for making this whole process so special.
Thank you to the phenomenal cast - I’ll never forget hearing you guys in the first readthrough and feeling like the characters were in the room with me. Thank you for bringing them to life so brilliantly.
@chelseahalfpenny@lewisbowes_@sarahbalfour@charlottebradleyy@officialmatildafreeman@georgebukhari_@realangelalonsdale@gwenllianmears@crocodile_bundee
And thank you to everyone who has listened and messaged, I’m feeling very loved today ❤️ If you couldn’t catch The Counsellor this afternoon, it’s now available on BBC Sounds!
February was a banger. Wrote more than I ever have, spent time with so many people I love, and hit more than one career milestone that I never would have anticipated just six months ago (more on that to come in a separate post!)
Plus Pancake Day. Also the stairs in the fisherman’s cottage that I fell down — a humbling way to end a corker of a month but I’m not mad about. Got a free full back tattoo that might last me until April 🫶🏻
A selection of some of the books that I carried through 2025.
2025 was incredible for me. It felt like the culmination of so much hard work, and I loved so much of it. And even though I have a lot of very exciting things happening in 2026 which could rival last year (🤞🏻) I can’t help that New Year worry that the other shoe might be about to drop.
But I’m pushing aside the trepidation for now and looking back at the highlights of my 2025 — moments that exist outside the realm of hypotheticals and anxiety, and that I can simply be proud of. These are the books that I will always associate with these moments. Thankfully they were all bangers.
Had a good writing day today and feeling reflective.
Every time I jump back into editing, I realise that it’s my favourite part of writing. Until I start drafting something new and I remember THAT’S my favourite part. Until I start researching again, talking to people much smarter than me, ordering piles of library books, and remember I love that too. And the outlining with the whiteboard that doesn’t fit in my room and the flashcards I keep losing in the bottom of my bag. And the reading and the gathering and the listening and scribbling under the desk at work. And the words typed on the little table that attaches to my steering wheel in the dark of a service station car park, and those written at my desk as the sun comes up.
While I was writing my first script, I shocked myself by thinking THIS is the medium I love, and panicked that this meant I might fall out of love with prose. But then I returned to my novel and fell straight back in love with it — and the long list of novels to come — again.
Feeling very grateful for writing in all its forms today, and thought this picture summed it up. Even though the thought of a writing career is fraught with uncertainty and doubt and so much you can’t control, I still feel like a cocker spaniel out walking in the woods, not sure where he’ll end up and in no hurry to get there — just enjoying putting one paw after the other.
So incredibly excited to announce that I am the winner of 2025’s Alfred Bradley Bursary Award with @bbcwriters@bbccslfest ❤️
It was one of the most surreal evenings of my life — firstly to have been shortlisted amongst such incredible writers, and then to have THE Peter Straughan present me the award, was beyond anything I imagined. The excitement and encouragement of everyone in the team is something I will never forget, and am so grateful for.
Extremely excited to get stuck back into my script and get it ready for broadcast! 🎧
So grateful that my strange little story about grandparents and Northernness made it to the longlist of this year’s Edinburgh Short Story Award. Huge thank you to @edinburghwritingawards 🙌🏻
Bank holiday writing retreat in my favourite place in the world. Writing, walking, reading, talking till late around a massive table that I wish I’d grabbed a picture of.
Grateful to have such brilliant people to be doing this alongside ❤️
