About Emily
I am a storyteller. I write novels. I make theatre and film. I am a performer. I struggle to make sense of the world, and I write until I can.
I was born ambivalent. Or at least I think I was. On the bad days I have no idea what I’m doing or who I am. On the good days this feels like the point.
I was brought up in Newcastle Upon Tyne, the youngest of four in a chaotic family. I went to Heaton Comprehensive School, then St Catherine’s College, Oxford. I found it hard to settle and ran away to Paris to learn clowning. I became a trapeze artist, then a theatre-maker, a movie actress, and a novelist. It is a life without a safety net.
I was a shy child and didn’t talk much. I used to make peg dolls with glue and scraps of cloth. I think even then I was trying to tell a story and find my place in it.
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I was born ambivalent. Or at least I think I was. On the bad days I have no idea what I’m doing or who I am. On the good days this feels like the point.
From the age of five I walked to school alone up Tankerville Terrace, a long, scary road between the railway and the cemetery, shrouded with trees. Sometimes I think I can feel its shadows are still in me. I wanted to do dance classes, but gymnastics was all that was on offer. To my delight I had found something I was good at. One year, I won gold on floor in the Newcastle Gymnastics Competition. My body was a friend to me from the start. It thrilled me and seemed full of possibilities.
When I started making theatre I found that I had been absorbing the people around me for years. I found my voice creating characters through mimicry. I weave ideas, stories and movement into a theatrical fabric which I wrap around the audience.
After Uni, I was offered a scholarship at The London Contemporary Dance School but theatre was calling. I made shows; Sex II, Sex III, Revolver. I had a wonderful manager called Glynis Henderson and I hit the road, touring the shows round the world. The director Neil Bartlett saw me and asked me to play Juliet in his production of Romeo and Juliet in London. It was my first proper acting job. One night, a casting director saw me, and out of nowhere, I was starring in a movie.
I became a film actor. I still love the buzz, the discipline and shared purpose on a film set.
I dance at night clubs, jazz clubs, salsa halls, in my study, anywhere. My body needs to move. I dance with a group of people in a local church hall. It’s my medicine and my community, and it inspired my recent novel Ecstatic.
I began writing prose after my father died after a short illness. Looking back, it was my way of continuing a conversation with him. Writing prose moves inwards, to difficult, hidden places; it tells stories on multiple levels. I find writing a book is both agony, and ecstasy.
I have always been hard to pin down, even to myself. Any new project is often wildly different to the last. My aim is create work that begins conversations, that are relatable and absorbing, that explore ideas and deepest feelings, and the wildness in us all.
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I filmed an orgy scene with Eddie Izzard in Velvet Goldmine. We were off our faces. Very Method.
Miscellaneous facts:
I once saw a wild tiger while climbing Annapurna in Nepal.
I was in a band called Under The Doctor, I played keyboards and was put at the back.
When I was at secondary school, I’d wag off for lunch every day and get chips and gravy.
I was in an an orgy scene with Eddie Izzard in the film Velvet Goldmine. We were off our faces. Very Method.
When I studied with Philippe Gaulier I had no money but he waived the fees on the strength of my Bouffons - the freaks who live outside the city walls and mock the good citizens within.
When I was a trapeze artist I lived off sheep’s livers as cheap protein.
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I studied Zen in the dusty bell tower of St James’s Church near Piccadilly and still return to the koans. They bewilder then cut through to newness.
More things about me:
I never wanted a dog, but now we have Pippin I’m writing a film about her.
I have a weirdly good sense of direction and my sons say I should be a mini-cab driver.
My full title is Doctor and I’m still grateful for the research funding I received
I’m a big Newcastle United fan, but watch through my fingers.
I cycle everywhere.
My favourite hill is High Raise above Grasmere
