I vividly remember reading my first book independently; it was a mauled copy of Else Holmelund Minarik’s Little Bear, which I had just acquired at a jumble sale. The moment I sat next to the little bookshelf and read my first ever story to myself felt magical. I have loved reading (and second-hand bookshops) ever since. Stories have the power to transport us to other places and transform our thinking. Roald Dahl’s tales of his travels inspired my desire to travel and made me determined to learn another language (or two!)

German lessons at school could be fairly uninspiring, but the exchanges I went on in Remagen brought what I was learning in the classroom to life. College German lessons offered more insight into the history and culture of German-speaking countries and my first encounters with the film Lola rennt and Bernhard Schlink’s Der Vorleser convinced me to study German at university.

During my time at the University of Nottingham, I was lucky enough to study a wide range of German-language literature, from Thomas Mann, to Franz Kafka and Christa Wolf. But, it was the works I encountered during a course on Contemporary Theatre that really caught my attention. Works by Bertolt Brecht, Peter Handke, Erwin Piscator, Heiner Müller and Elfriede Jelinek allowed me to question my assumptions about literature and my view of the world.

I went on to complete my Masters in Modern and Contemporary German Studies, during which I developed my knowledge of critical theory alongside pursuing my interest in the feminist politics of German-language post-dramatic writers like Elfriede Jelinek, Heiner Müller, Dea Loher and René Pollesch.

From there, life took a different turn and after some time living in the Gambia, West Africa, and a decade of teaching Modern Foreign Languages in secondary schools in East Anglia, I have returned to my passion for literature and stories.

I now work as a free-lance literary translator and have found myself having a lot of fun translating crime fiction and young adult fiction.