Anne

Anne attempts to write gritty novels, energetic short stories and often quite dark poetry. She only succeeds when the wind is in the right direction.

She grew up on an apple farm in the heart of rural Essex. After gaining 3 A levels and 1 S Level, in which her specialist subjects were Oscar Wilde and Lord Byron, she read English at Durham University. There she focused on Medieval and Old English, and must be one of the few people who has read the Anglo-Saxon poem, “Beowulf”, in the original language. However, she remembers almost nothing about it now.

After University, she spent six months doing voluntary work before taking a series of administrative jobs in insurance, education and legal conferencing. When she could stand it no more, she went back to Durham University to take her MA in Medieval English and Latin. Her final dissertation concerned the love poetry written by James I of Scotland and Charles, duc d’Orleans (although not addressed to each other), both of whom were separately held hostage by a foreign power for many years, thus earning the departmental shorthand title of “Anne’s sex and bondage thesis.”

She married Keith Olding in 1993 and moved to Surrey, where they have lived for the last seventeen years. She works part-time for Surrey University in Student Care Services. Interests include playing bad golf, theatre-going, reading books with at least one dead body in them, and of course writing, which – sometimes – keeps her sane.

Anne’s latest novel is The Gifting, a fantasy which contains living mountains, mysterious ravens and people made of fire.

More information can be found at Anne’s website and she also keeps a regular online journal.