Hello! I'm Harriet and I wrote a weird book called The Square Root of Summer, about a grieving girl who's falling in love and into wormholes, and a weird book called How To Be Luminous, about a grieving girl who stops seeing in colour.
I'm also a journalist, editor, amateur illustrator, cat-lover, cake-baker and wannabe gardener who likes to swim, travel, read and eat a great deal of tacos.
Editing If you’re here seeking my sub-editing, proofreading, copywriting, copy-editing (etc!) skills, check out the sub-editing tab at the top for my CV and get in touch, I’m available for in-house shifts and special projects.
Novelising If you’re here because you loved Square Root or Luminous, there's an official "bio" knocking around my publisher's website, but more importantly, here is a list of things I adore:
Swimming in the sea. Fairy lights at dusk. Emojis. Lots and lots of candles. Big sunglasses. Very small martini glasses. Junk shops. Organisation. Delphiniums. Thick mascara. Super-spicy tacos. Using old-fashioned phrases like ‘draw a bath’. Cagoules. Paris. Rain of all kinds. Cliffs. Kissing. New York and San Francisco. The colour pink. Joni Mitchell. Felt-tip pens. Joan Didion. Cats. Poetry. Flamingos. Beauty routines. Arsenal. South London. Brighton. Bare feet on hot pavements. Drinking tea in other people's kitchens. Perfume bottles. The Bloomsbury Set. Lidos. Italian Renaissance painters. Wolves. Tidiness. Bright yellow shoes. Abandoned churches. Tiny earrings. Bonfires. California. Living minimally. Climbing trees. Forests. Coffee. Ferns. Love.
My favourite fictional character is Nicholas from The Lumber Room, by Saki: "The dramatic part of the incident was that there really was a frog in Nicholas's basin of bread-and-milk; he had put it there himself, so he felt entitled to know something about it."
Some books I love: The Greengage Summer, by Rumer Godden. The Sky Is Everywhere, by Jandy Nelson. A Little Love Song, by Michelle Magorian. We Were Liars, by E Lockhart. We Are Okay, by Nina LaCour. Only one of these takes place in the winter.
"I wouldn't want to be faster
or greener than now if you were with me O you
were the best of all my days" - Frank O'Hara, from Animals
"Forsythia outside the window
and sun spilled over you
like a thick yellow miracle
as if another planet
was coaxing you out of the house" - Michael Ondaatje, from To A Sad Daughter