Et voilà. A warm pumpkin-spiced latte, a notepad of aesthetic scribbles, and an ambiance fit for people-watching. I’m comfortably settled in Starbucks, and all the prerequisites to writing are in place. Even that iconic green mermaid is staring up at me from my mug; she seems like the perfect modern muse for the creative endeavours ahead. Finally, I’m embarking on the world of blogging.

Perhaps it’s slightly over-ambitious to begin with an allusion to the classical epics, but I’m actually thinking about a particular quote by Gabriel Fielding: ‘Writing to me is a voyage, an odyssey, a discovery, because I’m never sure of precisely what I will find’. Legions of authors have probably echoed those sentiments, and they certainly capture the feelings behind this blog: a love for writing and by default, a love for learning. Whatever stirs my sensibilities or piques my passions, I want to share it and cultivate my own knowledge in doing so.

As an English Literature graduate, fresh out of Durham University and pursuing a career within the media, my slant should come as no surprise. There are three categories of personal interest that will inspire the material in this blog: culture, the arts, and any broadly-related current affairs. Apart from that, the direction is unpredictable and the horizon is open-minded. Either way, I hope it will be engaging and quirky – The Telegraph recently described me as ‘likeable’ and ‘ethereal’, so I’m taking that as a validation of quality.