Throughout this year, funded by Arts Council England’s ‘Developing Your Creative Practice’ grant, I have been working on evolving my approach to research, and how it informs my playwriting practice. This period has seen me delve into the story of Georgian “mad houses” and the history of psychiatry, but also, importantly, ask questions around my own prejudices, experiences, understandings.

Mostly, I have learned to brush rejections aside and press on; they are part and parcel of being a writer. However, there was something in their non-personalised general feedback that stuck with me longer than most. Perhaps in part, because I had not long been staring down the other end of the barrel.