I was born in Umtata in South Africa, where my father was Dean of the Cathedral, and a science teacher at St John’s College. When I was three years old, my father's asthma forced us to move inland in search of a drier climate.  So the Transkei’s misty hills and the Karoo semi-desert are both landscapes I love.

In Graaff-Reinet, my parents bought a rambling old house that no-one else seemed to want, but which was perfect for them, their four daughters – with a fifth soon to follow – and a plethora of books. I grew up there, my father died there, my mother still lives there, and we have more books than ever.

I studied English Literature at Stellenbosch in the Cape’s wine country, before following my roots and heading to Scotland for postgrad study in Edinburgh in 1993. In those days I thought I’d become an academic but sitting exams on Derrida on the day of South Africa’s momentous 1994 elections (having voted in Glasgow in the morning) made me realise I wanted to do something more creative, more 'grass roots'.

I did further study in Applied Linguistics, writing a thesis on adult literacy programmes in the new South Africa, intending to go back and work in the field. But my husband’s Masters and PhD study meant a move to London instead, and then onto Cambridge. I tumbled into publishing, and found myself perfectly at home, thrilled to be working with writers, among them several South African authors I had long admired.

Since then I’ve lived happily in two worlds, returning home to South Africa twice a year and commuting from Cambridge to London daily. The work I do is varied, absorbing and inspiring; there’s a bit of headspace to work on poems on the train (in between reading and editing manuscripts…) and London, well, who can tire of London?  I love the city, its history and multi-culturalism, and all the artistic energies and opportunities it offers. It’s here that I went to Michael Donaghy’s City University course for a couple of years, and met other poets who I still workshop, read and publish with.