I’m principally a writer, but also a curator of exhibitions and a professor in creative writing at Birkbeck, University of London.

I write fiction and non-fiction, cultural history and criticism, and I've written a great deal about myths and fairy tales. Currently I'm writing about the concept of sanctuary and the idea that imaginative constructs, stories, works of art or buildings, even, can be places of sanctuary. I'm also a curator of exhibitions.