First of all, what is your role at the agency? 

I read all the crime and thriller submissions that we receive at the agency and assess whether they are suitable for us to take on for representation.

Which book changed your life?

The Catcher in the Rye. I read it when I was 9 and it was the first ‘adult’ book I read – and the first one to make me realise that fiction can take you into new worlds far removed from your own life (1950s New York was rather different to 1980s Merseyside).

What book are you waiting for?  

I’d love to read a UK-set police procedural with a complex and engaging main protaganist, pitted against a vicious but cerebral killer. A book that combines the characterisation of George Pelecanos and Ian Rankin with the high-concept plotting of Mark Billingham and the breakneck thrills of Simon Kernick would make my day!

You are stranded on a desert island. You can choose one luxury item to take with you, one celebrity guest to join you and you will be granted one wish (which you cannot use to wish yourself off the island). What and who do you pick?

I would take a bottomless vat of 8-hour cream (I can imagine that all that sunshine would be very drying on the skin …), Adam and Joe for amusement purposes (can they count as one celebrity guest?) and my one wish would be that a mobile library would pop round every Friday to bring me a new selection of books.

Share your favourite quotation:

‘You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me’ C. S. Lewis