I joined University of Strathclyde in August 2025 as Chancellor's Fellow / Lythe Senior Lecturer in Creative Practice after 12 years at the University of Stirling in Creative Writing. 

Primarily a novelist, I have four fiction books to my name (So It Is, The Busker, Man at Sea, The Sleepless) and a first book of non-fiction forthcoming in 2027 from Icon Books (Rejection: a user's guide). I'm interested in all elements of the craft of fiction writing, with particular expertise in crime fiction, historical fiction and the writing of place (e.g. psychogeography). My academic work often focuses on creativity more widely, particularly the ways in which writers and other creatives engage more deeply with their process. Current research projects include one on rejection across the creative arts, as above, and a long-running fascination with the links between creativity and physical activity.

In 2025/26, I will be running a level 4 module on 'Creative Economies and the Culture Industry', which uses case studies of Glasgow's creative industries as a way of examining the way(s) in which skills gleaned from the Humanities can be applied to the world of work. In the same vein, I'll be coordinating the level 3 workplacement module on the English and Creative Writing Programme and contributing teaching to the MLitt in Creative Writing. 

My PhD is from the University of Surrey (2012), with a practice-led thesis which comprised my debut novel 'So It Is' and a critical examination of the role of women in the violence of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. I'm an experience PhD supervisor as well, with seven completed doctoral students including published writers such as Natalia Liebnitz (Gomes), Martin Raymond and Donna Moore.