Gemma Burgess

I grew up in various cities in Australia and Asia, mostly Hong Kong. My love of reading and writing probably came from being taught at home by my English teacher mother for the first few months of every move. She didn’t know long division, so I skipped that entirely, and didn’t learn my times tables till I was about 17. I loved reading and writing so much that sometimes I would add ‘she said,’ when I was talking aloud.

I went to university in Sydney, where indecision led me to a triple...