Profiles

I'm a writer and composer based in Oxford, and currently lecture in twentieth-century literature at Southampton University. I completed my doctoral thesis on the work of the British poet and novelist Stevie Smith at Balliol College, Oxford in 2007 and went on to lecture at Bath Spa University and St. Anne’s College, Oxford. I joined the English department at Southampton as a teaching fellow in twentieth-century literature in 2008. I'm currently organising a conference on text-setting and the contemporary libretto to be held in Chawton House Library in September.

As a composer and as a writer, I've always enjoyed thinking about the relationship between words and music. As a short-listed composer for spnm from 2002-5, I completed choral commissions for the EXAUDI ensemble and the Orlando Consort, and had my work broadcast on national radio. I went on to complete an oratorio for the Islington Choral Society under the Adopt A Composer scheme in 2006, where I set poetry by the Islington-based poet and novelist B.S. Johnson (1933-1973). I've since set a series of poems by Sylvia Plath for the 75th Anniversay Gala, which were performed by soprano Laura Mayhew and Julius Drake.

I formed the London-based electronic pop trio Archipelago in 2007, and we are touring the UK this summer, including a slot at the Big Chill Festival in August. This year we've received radio play on BBC Radio 6 and Amazing Radio.