After completing a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, Louise Thomas’ desire to challenge her writing to a higher level brought her to the university’s MA course. Louise was brought up as an expatriate in Tanzania, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland and is currently living in Bristol with her partner and their pet rats, Lauren Conrat and Mr Cloud.
The following section is the opening chapter of Louise’s manuscript Tiriso Burning. Set in a remote and isolated gold mining community in colonial Kenya, the novella takes the themes of greed and terror and examines what it is to live with fear. The text is follows Ida Woolfe’s transition from child to adulthood in a place alienated from the rest of the world, as life at the once flourishing and fertile mine descends slowly into an environment of suspicion and violence.
Louise-Thomas