I grew up in Cape Town where I worked as an art museum custodian, library assistant, actress in children's musicals, front-of-house duty manager, and university lecturer. My PhD was in film studies and I've always been obsessed with stories.

I attempted my first book (with illustrations) when I was five. At sixteen, I had a vivid dream about a girl and her father who walked a magic garden, hiding an awful secret. This grew into a collection of connected short stories, Moss (Kwela, 2004) which I wrote under the mentorship of André Brink at the University of Cape Town. I was awarded the Caine Prize in 2006. My second book, The Cutting Room (Penguin South Africa, 2013), is about ghosts, sort of, and crime.

In 2009, I moved to Galway, Ireland. After The Cutting Room, I knew I wanted to write a fantasy book. When my youngest child was born, I found reading YA books kept me awake during the long nights. I was lost in stories of brave girls. Of magic worlds and dystopias, zombies and vampires, queens and assassins while (almost) everyone around me slept, and the first seeds of The Wren Hunt were planted.