Original Writing

Eg and Me – a novel (Heinemann 2011)
Eg and Me is the story of a boy imprisoned in his own home – until he escapes through a secret tunnel to a world beyond everything he knows. Here he meets Eg and the strange tribal world of a secondary school whose headteachers have disappeared, where order is about to break down and chaos threatens.

Fast – an original play (Heinemann 2011)
Fast is a two-act play intended for use in KS3 English and Drama lessons. It is a school drama, set in a secondary school canteen. It has 18 speaking parts: sixteen school students and two canteen staff. It explores issues of media pressure and manipulation, diet and body image, charity and celebrity.

A group of friends has agreed to take part in a sponsored fast for charity. Two of the friends, Holly and Charlie, challenge each other to extend the fast by another 24 hours. But neither will give in – and when the media get involved, events start to spiral out of control.

Free! - an original play (Heinemann 2009)
A school drama, set in a classroom, with 23 speaking parts, all of them school students.

Year 8 should have a supply teacher for their first lesson of the day but the supply teacher doesn't turn up. The class agree among themselves that they won't report the incident but try to get through the lesson unsupervised and undetected.

Conflicts of gender, academic ability, and conformism, build to the conclusion that - whatever schools and teachers may hope, struggle and aim for - it is the students who decide their own fate and their underlying humanity which sees them through.

Educational Writing