As a child, I was the weird kid who loved to make my own flower fairies and collect spiders for my indoor tent/spider cave. I was rarely fully dressed – unless the opportunity presented itself for a spot of fancy dress. My grandparents ran and lived above a country pub in Kent, and I lived there with my mum, little sister and extended family. It was less Waltons, more Emmerdale Farm. I loved it. My favourite hobby at the time was to sit at the bar and write little stories about the regulars.

In my last year of primary school, my mum developed a drinking problem and I started to use my writing as a means of escape. I’d create wonderful, complex worlds through my stories – and I’d retreat there whenever I needed to.

In my 20s, after studying English, Media and Sociology, I took a distance learning course in writing for children. I started work as a copywriter and journalist and spent 12 years writing for Hamleys.

Whilst on holiday with my youngest son in 2018, he said something that gave me the idea for Picture-This Books™ : “That’s not how I imagined it in my head, Mummy” – on seeing the illustrations in a book I was reading him.

A mouth of babes, pure of heart statement that transported me back to being a child myself.

I began to research the importance of imagination and creativity in childhood, particularly in response to trauma, anxiety, and mental health more generally. This took me down a rabbit hole and led to me exploring the issue of representation in children’s books. I learned about the importance of children seeing characters who look like them – yet how little that actually happens.

At the same time, I was alarmed to find out that more and more schools are decreasing access to “soft subjects”, that the curriculum is being squeezed, that, between school and screens - children are being given less opportunity for investigative, trial and error learning. Less opportunity to be creative, to use their imagination to problem solve and invent.

I am a mum of two. I’m also a neurodiversity advocate. I am passionate about the power of imagination and the importance of creativity to the arts, the sciences, and wider societal progress.