Beginner’s Pluck: Rachel Elliott

A quiet child, Rachel was an obsessive reader, but she wanted to become a vet. “My passions were animals and books,” she says.

After university Rachel did some post graduate work in sociology at Derby University. She started a PhD there, but left that to work in magazine publishing in Bath. She stayed 10 years, working for digital arts magazines; writing, interviewing visual artists, and proof reading.

“Then I started writing short stories. Some were published and were shortlisted for things. I wrote a different novel which was a finalist in the Dundee International Book prize.” It wasn’t published, but Rachel got an agent through it. And that’s when she wrote her debut.