The daughter of missionaries, I grew up in 1980s Bangkok, the Malaysian jungle and the tea hills of southern India, before returning to Scotland to complete my education. At seventeen, I moved to London to study Religion, History and Thai at the School of Oriental and African Studies.

My first novel, IN A  LAND OF PAPER GODS was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize 2017 and was a Red Magazine Book of the Year, 2016.

Some of the writers who have influenced me are Marilynne Robinson, Marguerite Duras, Anne Carson, Graham Greene, Simone Weil, Arundhati Roy and Franz Kafka.

I love to step into the unknown and discover, whether that be in writing or being on stage. I regularly perform solo improvisation, fusing language, imagination, movement and the moment. I have presented and performed LATE! NIGHT SOLOS alongside Seke Chimutengwende since 2011. With composer Reynaldo Young I developed the LEWISHAM IMPROV STATION, a sound-based project harnessing improvisation to create aural worlds combining poetry, song and story.

My movement training comes from a decade of Japanese martial arts and my performance influences include butoh artist Kazuo Ohno, choreographer Pina Bausch and Alice Oswald’s recitations. 

 I am a visiting lecturer on the Royal Holloway Creative Writing MA and Lecturer in Improvisation at London Contemporary Dance School. I live at the top of a vicarage in East London.