I went to Notre Dame, an all-girls convent school in the West End of the city. My schooldays were full of music – and a lot of praying - and I loved English and History. None of the other subjects I studied interested me whatsoever, and I was hopeless at Maths. At sixteen I left school and went to the University of Glasgow ( far, far too young) where I took a degree in English Literature and Language and found myself four years later - and not quite knowing how - employed by Glasgow District Council in several departments including the Dampness section. Two years later I became a Secondary English teacher, and two years after that I went back to the University of Glasgow to take a post-graduate degree in English Language. Next came employment as a lexicographer with Collins dictionaries, where I learned to play with and manipulate language in microscopic detail. When I look back now, I realise that every job I’ve ever done ( apart from working in the Dampness section) has led me towards becoming a writer, a secret dream I achieved when my novel Think Me Back was published in 2001. Since then I have combined full-time writing with raising a family, my Glasgow-set novels appealing particularly to young adults. Fat Boy Swim, my ‘breakthrough’ novel, is on the English curriculum in schools throughout the UK, as are several other of my novels.
In 2008 I was commissioned by the National Theatre of Scotland to write a new play and in 2010 the NTS produced my debut drama, Empty, directed by Vicky Featherstone. Since then I have had a two plays : The Sunday Lesson directed by Joe Douglas, and Supply directed by Emma Callander produced for Play, Pie, Pie in Glasgow’s Oran Mor . I have also written and a play called Chamber of Nothing published by Heinemann/ Pearson) in 2011, for use in schools.
In tandem with my own writing, I deliver many talks and lead workshops about writing. I was the Scottish Booktrust’s Virtual Writer- in –Residence 2009-10, and have mentored the winners of the 2010-11 and 2011-12 Scottish Booktrust Young Writer Competition.
January 2012 has seen my short novel, Exit Oz, published in the United States with a new title for American readers: Slippy.
I am working on a new play, a dramatic adaptation of one of my novels, and am hoping, as soon as time allows, to embark on Book One of a trilogy of novels.
;)