About me
I was born in London and raised in America by South African parents. But I fell in love with Britain sometime between being born and being transported to Connecticut as a toddler, and I returned at the earliest opportunity.
I spent a year working on archaeological digs around Europe before starting a degree in Archaeology followed by a PGCE in Religious Education and English. Full of youthful enthusiasm, I set out for Zimbabwe to teach in rural secondary schools for two years. This forced me to grow up very quickly! It was there that I met my future husband who was working as a doctor in the Zambezi Valley.
At the end of my contract in Africa, I returned to England, taught in a comprehensive and completed an MA in Museum Studies. I enjoyed working as an Education Officer at several museums and galleries around the West Midlands, but stopped working when, in accordance with the universal law that ‘there are no buses for ages and then three come at once’, we adopted two babies and not long after, I discovered I was pregnant. We live in Shropshire, amongst its tangled forests, ancient hills and lively history; a truly inspiring landscape.
I began writing poetry as a teenager, only turning to fiction when my youngest son started school. Writing my first novel, The Errant Hours took nearly five years, but I’ve been getting quicker since then!
Writing has helped me understand the overwhelming experience of being a mother. I enjoy rummaging around in our everyday lives, looking at the layers of meaning, but I also enjoy the escapism that writing can offer, a chance to live differently, in a distant time and place, and to control the events that happen there.
Sir Terry Pratchett once said “Writing is the most fun you can have by yourself.” I would wholeheartedly agree.
Member of the Society of Authors
Member of Writing West Midlands Mentorship Programme (Room 204)
Member of the Alliance of Independent Authors
Former member of the Borders Poetry Writers and Bridgnorth Writers
Kate Innes – BA hons Archaeology – University of Southampton
PGCE (secondary) Roehampton Institute
MA Museum Studies – University of Leicester
