About me

I was born in Yorkshire of Polish, Irish, English parentage.
To find out more Click here >Seven Memories<

When I was twelve my family moved to Scotland. Later, I read Mediaeval Studies at Edinburgh University and did a postgraduate degree in Folk Life Studies at Leeds.

My first solo book of poetry, A Book of Men, won a Scottish Arts Council New Writing Award. This was a slightly oblique look at the relationship between men and women which has been a trademark of my writing ever since.To find out more Click here >Cathedral<

After that I spent three years teaching English in Finland and Poland, worked as community writer for the Arts in Fife and then moved back to Ayrshire where I married sculptor and artist Alan Lees. (www.woodarts.co.uk)

Since then I have written plays for the stage including two major productions for the Traverse: Wormwood, about the Chernobyl disaster, and Quartz, about magic and religion, as well as plays for the Oran Mor’s acclaimed A Play, A Pie and a Pint season in Glasgow. I have also written television drama including Shadow of the Stone starring Alan Cumming and Shirley Henderson, and more than one hundred hours of drama for BBC Radio 4 , including two prize winning original radio plays.

When I'm not writing I run an online ‘interiors and inspirations’ business called The Scottish Home, including an eBay shop, selling the wonderful antique and vintage textiles of Scotland and Ireland. Visit http://stores.ebay.co.uk/The-Scottish-Home to see a current selection.