Meet The Author

Writing is a new venture for me; currently, I am a Reception teacher (and Early Years Foundation Lead) at a Primary school in outer London. I have been teaching for 7+ years, including teaching abroad in Uganda and Thailand. The classroom is where I feel most at home.

This creation began back in the summer of 2023. I was on the hunt for an engaging and captivating story to teach Nursery and Reception children about their feelings. At a loss finding a specific book, my teaching team encouraged me to start by designing characters. Using children's finger painting as initial inspiration, these eventually evolved into 'beans'! Once the characters had been created, I started writing their story....

Being an experienced teacher gave me a great insight into writing a children's picture book; I was already aware of their concentration levels, vocabulary and understanding of texts. | wanted to create a book with a simple/straightforward plot, which they could retell or even read partially themselves. It needed to be colourful, eye-catching, engaging and 'cute'! I was keen to make it as familiar as possible, with Little Bean attending their school too, with the school emblem on Little Bean's book bag and water bottle.

As a child, I always enjoyed writing short stories. My sisters and I would pack hundreds of pieces of paper for our 3 week family holidays in France. We would spend hours drawing characters, designing book covers and writing our own stories. In addition to writing stories, I was an avid reader. My library card was well used (often the maximum number of books were taken out) and I would forever be swapping books with siblings and friends. Even now, in my 30s, I have a large stack of fiction books on my bedside table and always have at least one audiobook on the go!

When I'm not in the classroom, (or writing a children's book!), I enjoy creative hobbies, such as drawing, painting, visiting art galleries and going to fashion exhibitions. At the weekends, you can often find me playing tennis, taking my (naughty!) Yorkshire terrier for walks or reading the latest thriller/murder mystery!