emmadavies.net > About Emma Davies

About Emma Davies

My name is Emma. I was born in the January of 1976. I have a long term partner. I grew up in Nottingham. I didn't leave until I was about 24, when I moved to Sheffield for a few years. Recently I have moved around quite a bit. For a while I lived in Nice, France, then back to Nottingham, then out to Matlock, Derbyshire. Recently I moved back to Sheffield, where I live in a very nice house in a pleasant, leafy Edwardian garden district. We own a chocolate and tan cocker spaniel called Jasper.

My areas of special interest include writing books, computer programming, genetics and nutrition. The programming is only to support the writing habit. The books I read are a peculiar mixture of nutrition and medical books, and fantasy, gothic, and science fiction novels. I read proper literature too, if I'm forced. My writing subjects are similar to my reading subjects.

I'm an atheist. I'm not even slightly mystical. Sorry: I don't believe in fairies. I'm a scientist at heart. I'm left-wing but too cynical to believe in the Marxist dream anymore. Power corrupts. There are too many unpleasant and ignorant people in the world. I am a feminist of sorts and I believe wholeheartedly in sexual liberation, but it's not really a big deal to me. I like goths, skaters, hippies, emo kids and alternative types. I have a fascination with witches. I am not a goth. I don't subscribe to any particular social group, as I like dressing up too much, and I don't do social groups.

I had asthma and eczema as a child and fibromyalgia as a teenager. I used to be a vegetarian but it made me ill: I know better now. I have spent most of my life suffering from strange symptoms of ill health that the average doctor tends to dismiss as unimportant. There are some interesting genes and personality types that run in my family. We seem to produce either wildly extrovert musicians and actors, or crazy solitary inventors and engineers. I suspect that the particular combination of genes that I inherited has caused me to have Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism. My scores are through the roof on all of the official tests I have obtained, though I have no desire to get officially 'diagnosed'. I do not have a 'disorder', I have a personality, of which I am quite proud. I also have an IQ in the top 99.5 percentile. This is despite being rubbish at maths. Apparently my pattern-spotting, systemising, and visio-spatial abilities are rather good, for a girl.

I have a separate nutrition blog where I write about ketogenic diets and salicylate, amine, glutamate and opioid intolerance. I follow a specific diet that is low in these food chemicals, and whilst on this diet I am effectively cured of fibromyalgia, asthma and eczema, and I am able to keep most of the unpleasant physical symptoms of Asperger's (like hyperacuisis, chronic back pain and skin hypersensitivity) under control. Fibromyalgia and Asperger's are closely connected.

My sister, Sarah, was the bass guitarist for a girlband called "Hepburn". Hepburn got to number eight in the UK singles charts with their first single "I Quit". You might remember the annoying cockney accent of the lead singer. They appear on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer soundtrack. These days Sarah is a police officer, a job she enjoys more. My dad is a college lecturer. My mum is disabled from a brain haemorrhage she had around ten years ago. I believe that this was caused by a combination of genetics, stress, NSAIDs, and HRT treatment.

I have two degrees, one is a BA in Social Sciences (Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, Economics, Research Methods), the other is a postgraduate degree, an MA in Writing (Fiction, Poetry and Lifewriting). In spite of this background I have changed radically in the last ten years. I taught myself to program shortly after leaving university. Then I moved on to an interest in nutrition and medicine. I can never stick to learning about one subject. I have toyed with whether to do a medical degree, but I don't believe I'm sociable enough to make a career of it. Besides, these days I'd rather get back to fiction writing.

I have a partner, JS. (who wishes to remain anonymous). He's two years younger than me. I met him through work: he was my boss and interviewed me for my first programming job. Six weeks later we got together, and four days after that I moved out of my parent's home and into JS's house, and we've been together ever since. No that isn't a joke.

For those who arrived here via google and still want to know: no, I'm not a comedy actress, a showbiz agent, an artist, a glamour model, or an olympic cyclist. Those are all other Emma Davieses.