Kathleen Jowitt was born in Winchester and grew up deep in the Welsh Marches and, subsequently, on the Isle of Wight. After completing her undergraduate degree in English Literature at the University of Exeter she moved to Guildford and found herself working for a major trade union. She now lives in Cambridgeshire, works in London, and writes on the train. Her stories are about people who sort their own heads out and learn that they are, on the whole, not nearly such terrible human beings as they thought they were. Speak Its Name (2016) explores Christianity and sexual identity in the context of student life and politics, and was the first self-published novel ever shortlisted for the Betty Trask Prize. Her new book, A Spoke in the Wheel, was published in May 2018 and looks at physical capacity, the social model of disability, acceptance, redemption, and integrity.