author photograph by Keiko Ikeuchi
Welcome to my website! Thank you for visiting. I am a writer, mentor, editor, and occasional musician. Author of Cloistered: my Years as a Nun, my work has been published in the UK (Chatto & Windus, 2024,), the US (St Martin's Press, 2024), and the Czech Republic (Práh, 2024), adapted for radio (as BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week, April 2024) and serialised in the Observer and the Saturday Telegraph.
I have appeared as a guest on Radio 4's Free Thinking, the Sunday morning programme, and Saturday Live, as well as on Radio 3's The Verb, and have been interviewed on BBC Scotland, BBC Wales, and Write About Now. Last year I had the huge pleasure of being interviewed by the legend that is Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air podcast in the States. Since then I have written and presented for Radio 3 (The Essay, 9th and 10th October 2025) , spoken at St John's College Cambridge, delivered lectures including for the Temenos Academy, and appeared in conversation at many literary festivals including Wigtown, Bath, Bridport, Norwich, the Boswell Book Festival, the Festival of Faith and Literature, and at the Chalke History Festival in discussion with Mark Vernon and Martin Shaw.
Shortlisted for the TLS Ackerley Prize 2025, the Hatchard's and Biographers' Club First Biography Prize, 2024, and chosen as one of Prospect Magazine's Books of the Year, Cloistered is the product of a long, slow process of mulling, soul-searching, and attention to the craft of writing. With a PhD from London (Goldsmiths) and degrees from the Universities of Oxford and UEA I am now married to Neil, play the viola and piano whenever I get the chance, enjoy choral singing, and divide my time between Oxford and the Malvern Hills.
I have appeared as a guest on Radio 4's Free Thinking, the Sunday morning programme, and Saturday Live, as well as on Radio 3's The Verb, and have been interviewed on BBC Scotland, BBC Wales, and Write About Now. Last year I had the huge pleasure of being interviewed by the legend that is Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air podcast in the States. Since then I have written and presented for Radio 3 (The Essay, 9th and 10th October 2025) , spoken at St John's College Cambridge, delivered lectures including for the Temenos Academy, and appeared in conversation at many literary festivals including Wigtown, Bath, Bridport, Norwich, the Boswell Book Festival, the Festival of Faith and Literature, and at the Chalke History Festival in discussion with Mark Vernon and Martin Shaw.
Shortlisted for the TLS Ackerley Prize 2025, the Hatchard's and Biographers' Club First Biography Prize, 2024, and chosen as one of Prospect Magazine's Books of the Year, Cloistered is the product of a long, slow process of mulling, soul-searching, and attention to the craft of writing. With a PhD from London (Goldsmiths) and degrees from the Universities of Oxford and UEA I am now married to Neil, play the viola and piano whenever I get the chance, enjoy choral singing, and divide my time between Oxford and the Malvern Hills.
Facebook: #CloisteredWriter
Insta: @cmjcoldstream
Insta: @cmjcoldstream
Radio 3/ The Essay: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0029pt3
The Tablet discussion with Shelagh Fogarty and Liz Dodd:
https://www.thetablet.co.uk/events/unveiled-why-are-so-few-women-becoming-nuns-today/
The Tablet discussion with Shelagh Fogarty and Liz Dodd:
https://www.thetablet.co.uk/events/unveiled-why-are-so-few-women-becoming-nuns-today/
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