I am from Lincolnshire originally but grew up in various towns in England and Wales as a result of my dad’s career. My husband and I moved to the West Midlands in the mid-1990s when our children were very young and we have lived in the same street ever since. My elder son has bought a house two minutes up the road, and all three work in the local area.
I work as a lecturer in English at Loughborough University, having returned to education as a mature student. Returning to study wasn’t always easy with young children, especially since my youngest child has additional needs.
My course included modules on 17th-century literature, which inspired me so much that I followed this up with a master’s in early modern writing and a PhD in the same. Growing up I’d always wanted to be a doctor, and though that didn’t happen, my research into the ways women’s reproductive health is discussed in early books allows me to marry my interests in health and literature, and did lead to me becoming a doctor (of philosophy, if not medicine). My first academic book, Menstruation and the Female Body, came out in 2013 and will always be a standout moment.
For hobbies, I enjoy long country walks with our dog, visits to historical buildings, swimming in the sea on holidays, and I go to the theatre about once a month.
I’ve been a regular reader of the Guardian for around a decade. The move to the more compact format helped to win me over. I have always been interested in politics and remember, for example, staying up late all night watching the general election results in 1992 despite having a fractious toddler in the house. Obviously I was up until the early hours for the referendum results and the US election this year. I was briefly a single parent on social security benefits under the tail end of Margaret Thatcher’s government and am very concerned about the lack of social housing to help young women in my situation nowadays. It is so shortsighted to begrudge people help in rough times.
I am also very concerned about what is happening to the NHS: having watched paramedics and A&E staff save my daughter’s life on more than one occasion I have seen first-hand the difficult work they do with compassion and good humour.
I have the Guardian alerts on my phone and this keeps me up to date with breaking news. Mainly I follow the news and key commentators. I read the live blogs when breaking news is happening or for things like PMQs. I enjoy the book section, and the higher education section for work-related topics.
My Twitter timeline is filled with Guardian articles tweeted by friends. I used to enjoy reading the below-the-line comments and viewed them as part and parcel of an article, but it is all a bit too fractious there now, so I seldom read them.Columnists such as Marina Hyde keep me reading. Her referendum commentary was outstanding. I also like the gentle, self-deprecating humour of Tim Dowling and look forward to his pieces on the weekends.
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