BORN in 1975, Kate has always enjoyed writing.
Aged 17, she was the youngest finalist in the Independent newspaper’s Young Sports Writer of the Year 1992 (won by Tom Chesshyre, travel writer for The Times). Kate was also highly commended in the Telegraph’s young sports journalist competition 1993.
She gained an HND in Journalism from Harlow College and was the college’s journalism student of the year 1994/5.
She achieved a BA Hons degree in Writing and Publishing with Politics at Middlesex University and has been a journalist for 20 years. Kate has worked across all departments, including news, features and as a classical music reviewer for the Harlow Star.
She has written travel features for publications including The Lady magazine and for the Isle of Wight County Press, for which she works part-time.
She has had numerous poems printed in anthologies by publishers including Anchor Books, Hilton House and Arrival Press, as well as in First Time magazine.
In 2002, Kate was highly commended in the Hastings National Poetry Competition and she has since won regular awards for her poetry, fiction, plays and articles in local competitions.
In 2009, Kate self-published a print version of A Trans-Siberian Odyssey and sold it to raise money for the Earl Mountbatten Hospice.
By early 2013, it had raised almost £6,000 for the charity.
Kate has had fictional stories published in national and international magazines and in 2012 she won the inaugural Isle of Wight Literary Festival’s flash fiction competition.
She is currently working on a novel and when not writing, she can be found helping others with their books in progress; riding a horse; doing voluntary work or reciting The Gruffalo to her young son.
Kate is a member of the International Travel Writers Alliance and has received advice from travel writers Peter Carty and Lyn Hughes, former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion and novelist Raffaella Barker, amongst others.
Kate’s favourite travel memories include riding over the Mongolian steppes as part of her Trans-Siberian adventure and galloping across the Sahara on an Arab stallion.
She dreams of exploring the Himalayas and Patagonia.