When I left school, I did so with not many GCSEs, but with a creative mind. One book that I picked up when I was sixteen and has always stuck with me was Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser. I do not particularly know why. I have never been interested in writing a historical biography, but the story of someone who was expected to be something great, only to realise that all that grandeur was a simple illusion as society shifted, spoke to me deeply. I spent most of my twenties writing small stories that never saw the light of day. From sweeping romance to deep fantasy, I could never land on what I actually wanted to write.

Last summer, something clicked in my mind. I flicked between the news. One news story concerned the UK "censoring" the internet and the other surrounded the election of a new pope – power. I imagined a world in the distant future in which everything we know today as people has been censored. A world in which someone else has built the narrative. A world that lacked true depth and understanding. This sparked the idea for my current book.

Outside of writing, one thing that has profoundly shaped me is my passion and love for reading and discovering history. Much can be learnt by looking back at the mistakes of those who came before us. This interest deeply influences my storytelling, allowing me to weave intricate narratives that, while set in imagined futures, are grounded in the lessons of our past. I believe that understanding history is key to building compelling fictional worlds and exploring the us as humans!