Julie was selected for a place on the coveted 2011 Arvon/Jerwood mentoring scheme.

Under the guidance of author Maria McCann (As Meat Loves Salt, The Wilding), Julie is writing her second novel...

Mother Tongue

Darya Ivanova has something to say. You may not understand. But, in any language, it makes no sense at all.

Set in Russia and London, Mother Tongue is a powerful, first person account of what happens after the very worst thing has happened.

Red Ink

“Some kids get their parents' jewellery or record collections as hand-me-downs. Mum gave me this name...”

When her mother is knocked down and killed by a London bus, 15-year-old Melon Fouraki is left with no family worth mentioning. Her mother, Maria, never did introduce Melon to a “living, breathing” father.

The indomitable Auntie Aphrodite, meanwhile, is hundreds of miles away on a farm in Crete, and is unlikely to be jumping on a plane and coming to East Finchley anytime soon.

But at least Melon has ‘The Story’. ‘The Story’ is the Fourakis family fairytale. A story is something.

Red Ink is a blackly comic coming-of-age tale about superstition, denial and family myth.

Photos by Kavita Raju