I am an award-winning writer of short stories, poetry and plays.

My play ‘Car Crash’ was longlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Playwriting.

Car Crash
An arguing middle-aged couple die suddenly in a road traffic accident. As they are processed by a tired and somewhat cynical St Peter at the Pearly Gates Toll Booth they come to realise how much life and love still exists between them. They face their life’s demons: infertility, infidelity, terminal illness, alcoholism, reaching resolution and prepare to enter eternity, together forever.

In September 2022, I was awarded The Sir Alan Ayckbourn Trophy at the National Association of Writers Groups Annual Awards Ceremony for my 10-minute play, ‘Isolation’.

In May 2022, my short story ‘Element’ won first place in the Flash Fiction competition of Stafford Litfest and was featured in the Stafford Litfest: The Anthology 2022 by Dream Well Writing Ltd.

My short story ‘Transitory Beauty’ was longlisted for the 2024 Henshaw Press Short Story Competition. Transitory Beauty explores the themes of age, love, and attraction through the lens of both a young and an old woman as they find themselves in a railway station café.

In addition to writing plays and short stories, I also write poetry and fiction.

I’m a member of the Runaway Writers group in Burton-on-Trent, where I enjoy sharing my creative work and listening to the work of others.

Nothing To Lose

What would you do if you only had six months to live? When notorious gangster Tommy ‘Twinkle Toes’ Abbott joins the ‘Speak Out About Cancer’ support group there’s only one thing for it – rob the bank on the High Street… 

A diverse group of characters, brought together by their terminal illnesses, suddenly discover there’s more to life than chemo and visits to the oncology department.

From dramatic disguises to an ice-cream van getaway vehicle, this dark comedy explores how each character deals with their illness, forms new friendships (or rekindles old ones), and opens up about what they want to leave as their legacies. The only question is: will they get away with it?

Watch and listen to the prelude poem ‘Bad Hair Days’ read by Tara L Lacey of Peppered Wit on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYD3zmDwll4

Listen to the audio production of the full play here: https://audio.com/tara-lacey/collections/nothing-to-lose-peppered-wit-productions

Children’s Stories

I found my storytelling voice as soon as I became a mum. Every night I would create a ‘Story of the Day’ for my baby daughter, putting her at the middle of a fairy tale built around our adventures of the day. I would highlight all her major achievements, where we had been, who we had seen, and weave them into a story.

My daughter soon grew to become a book lover, just like her mum, and reading stories aloud and together became our new routine. We had favourite authors and liked to guess what came next.

When my daughter started school, new characters got created to make the 10-minute drive engaging and take her mind off new-school jitters. Baby Monkey was born when my daughter started to wonder at what animals lived in the National Forest, which surrounds our village.

Baby Monkey soon started to accompany us on our daily journeys. He became best friends with her favourite teddy, Bear Bear, and made new friends with Birdy, who lived in a tree in our street. A whole monkey family unit was created, and a regular pattern of monkey school, birthdays and parties became part of our life.

The Adventures of Bear Bear & Baby Monkey can now be found on YouTube. We hope more children will now come to love these characters that we have shared with each other over the years. Tune in now.