As of 2009[update], they were marketing and promotions officer at Avid Reader bookshop.[1]
They have written two collections of erotica—Swallow the Sound (2007) and Triptych (2011)—as well as four novels. They are also the author of three memoirs. Affection (2009) deals with their childhood and young adulthood through the lens of sexuality, The Three Burials of Lotty Kneen (2021) is principally about their grandmother, and Fat Girl Dancing (2023) concerns their relationship with their body.[2][3] Their sole poetry collection, Eating my Grandmother (2015), won the Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize.[4]
Their work has been described as "transgressive, sardonic, lyrical, comic; irresistibly erotic yet also romantic" and "acclaimed for its fearless honesty".[6]
Her grandmother was born in Egypt to a Slovenian mother and a father who had lived in Egypt for at least three generations and whose mother was Syrian, and most likely Jewish.[14]