I was born in London and grew up in the south east of England. My first published piece of fiction appeared in a magazine called Dark Horizons in 2002. Since then, my stories have featured in numerous magazines and anthologies including The Year’s Best Science Fiction, Best Horror of the Year and The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime. I have a lifelong love of speculative fiction, including science fiction, the gothic, weird fiction and good old fashioned ghost stories. I am particularly interested in work that tests the boundaries of genre: playing with philosophical ideas, savouring language, and experimenting with form. Ideas around landscape and sense of place, memory and personal identity form important strands in all my novels and stories. Recurring obsessions include old clocks and rare insects, forgotten manuscripts and abandoned houses. Writers who have inspired me include Iris Murdoch, Joyce Carol Oates, M. John Harrison, Paul Auster, Ali Smith and Alasdair Gray. I have won the British Science Fiction Award, the Novella Award, the Kitschies Red Tentacle and France’s Grand Prix de L’Imaginaire.
In May 2018 I was named as one of the Guardian’s Fresh Voices: 50 writers you should read now.
My literary agent is Anna Webber, at AM Heath.
I live and work in Rothesay, on the Isle of Bute.
Author photo by Diana Patient