About me

I'm a writer, speaker and editor based in Folkestone, UK. My book Reading the World: How I Read a Book From Every Country (The World Between Two Covers in the US) explores the big ideas brought up by my year-long journey through a book from every country in 2012. This quest has now become a lifelong endeavour, and I spend a lot of time corresponding with readers, writers and translators around the globe, and doing what I can to champion the sharing of stories that tend to be overlooked by the anglophone publishing industry.

My next non-fiction book, Relearning to Read: Adventures in Not-Knowing (Renard Press, October 2025), builds on this. Drawing on the Incomprehension Workshop I've developed and run with readers around the world since 2021, it explores how embracing not-knowing can help us read ourselves and our world better.

I'm also the author of two novels: international bestseller Beside Myself and Crossing Over.

When I'm not writing, I can often be found speaking at events and delivering reading workshops both in-person and online. As producer of the Royal Literary Fund's Collected podcast, I get to spend a lot of time talking to other writers about their process too. I also offer mentoring and editing services to private clients.