I was born in Plymouth, Devon UK and now live in the middle of nowhere in Mid Devon between Black Dog and Three Hammers.

When I was seven I won a prize at school - a big book of Australian Aboriginal myths and legends with dark surreal paintings in it. I became hooked on snakes and moons and creation myths.

I went to Exeter University to read Medieval Studies, wandering around cathedrals writing essays on Death and Fools and I took an option in English Folklore taught by the late Professor Theo Brown who was an expert on the subject and had a house full of witches' bottles, oral recordings of folk tales &c.

I wrote poetry, short stories and novels which have been variously prize winning, shortlisted (short stories shortlisted by AL Kennedy and Ali Smith) and longlisted.

With two friends (Sam Harrison and Ian Harbour) we formed the HIVE collective and started showing our paintings and prints in 2010. We won the RAMM Art prize in 2013 and have been exhibiting annually since then.

I'm interested in Folk Art, Inuit Art, Indian Art, Naive Art and am much influenced by Mark Chagall, Dora Holzhandler, Cecil Collins, Ken Kiff, John Bellany and Paul Klee.

I have recently started writing songs and am inspired by Califone (my favourite band) and also Smog, Sparklehorse and The Bad Plus.