Bio

I was born September 10, 1985, on a rainy day in Southampton, England.

Shortly afterwards my parents whisked me off to Kano, Nigeria, where I spent three years learning how to  steal baby goats (see left) and make excellent mud pies.

At four, I moved to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the first place I ever fell in love with. (Sorry Southampton and Kano.)

Memories of playing in the rain and the squelchy mud of the Mekong sustained me when I returned to the UK at age 11, and spent seven years learning the strange ways of the English and readjusting my international school colloquialisms.

(Apparently, it was not the done thing to praise people’s “fanny packs” and “pulling” didn’t just mean tugging at something with your hands.)

In 2003, I went to Tanzania to work on a newspaper for a year, fostering a love for journalism that has been reinforced by further work in the media, both paid and unpaid – and even more so by non-journalism jobs like selling glowsticks and waiting tables!

While at university in London, I studied social anthropology and Southeast Asia, which influences my present interest in writing about global pop culture and interviewing Southeast Asian personalities.

After spending two years in Jakarta, Indonesia,  freelancing for publications like The Jakarta Post, I have returned to the UK, in order to fulfill my longheld dream of gaining a hands-on education in trade publishing.