Ms Elizabeth Gyllian Speller

I have a Cambridge MA and MPhil and was a visiting scholar at Lucy Cavendish College. For the last ten years I’ve been a tutor for the diplomas and certificates in Fiction and Writing for Performance as well as supervising MSt students at PACE. I was a mature student when I came to Cambridge as an undergraduate, so I really enjoy teaching mature students. 

My three novels include The Return of Captain John Emmett and At Break of Day(UK) The First of July (US) and my work is published in eight languages. I also wrote a memoir about my rather eccentric family, The Sunlight on the Garden (Granta).

One of my favourite genres is poetry, both reading and writing it. I’ve won or been short-listed for several poetry prizes but my greatest surprise was being asked to provide the libretto for Michael Berkeley's work “Farewell”, written in memory of Sir Paul McCartney's wife, Linda.

In my classes I welcome first time writers as well as more experienced authors. I am not a great fan of PowerPoint but my classes tend to be thematic and discursive as well as informative, and my courses often include visual material, film, and music. I always enjoy it when students introduce new books or ideas from many other countries. I always hope that by the end of the course everybody feels they have learned rather than simply been taught.