I was born in Australia but grew up in Guernsey in the Channel Islands. After studying History of Art at Cambridge I moved to London, where I worked first at Christies’ Auctioneers, in the Modern and Impressionist department, before becoming a curator at Tate Britain. I was curator of exhibitions and displays at Tate Liverpool, then returning to Tate Britain as a curator of contemporary art.

I have worked with a great number of artists, from Lucian Freud to Tracey Emin, and I have written widely on art and contributed to exhibition catalogues for artists such as Wolfgang Tillmans, Jane and Louise Wilson and the late Helen Chadwick. I wrote my first novel, The Book of Lies, inspired by my childhood in Guernsey and delving into the island’s dark history during the German Occupation in the Second World War. This was published by Canongate and longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. I then published the non-fiction memoir, Joseph Gray’s Camouflage, which tells the story of my great grandfather,  Joseph Gray,  who was an official War artist in the First World War and then went on to work as a camouflage artist in the Second.

Most recently, I have returned to fiction. The Stranger’s Companion was published last year by Baskerville and was named by the Times as one of the top ten Historical Novels of 2024. It is out now in paperback. My next novel, Happily Ever After, was published on July 3, also with Baskerville.

I am represented by Elizabeth Sheinkman at Peters Fraser Dunlop (PFD) Literary Agents