Susan Swingler has worked as a curator, University lecturer, researcher, photographer and writer. After completing an MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University her first book, The House of Fiction, was picked up and published to much acclaim by Freemantle Press in Australia. The book was subsequently published in the UK by Scribe Publications and adapted into a BBC Radio drama starring Miriam Margoyles. Susan is now working on a novel.
While her children were young she worked as a teacher in primary and secondary schools, but in the 1980s her interest in photography, its practice and history, led her to work as a curator of contemporary photography exhibitions. She became fascinated by historical research when she was invited as a visiting curator to Harewood House, Yorkshire. Here she developed a series of historical, photographic and biographical exhibitions drawn from the extensive collections of art, sculpture, books and furniture held in the house, plus private correspondence, diaries and photography, all of which provided a wealth of material to explore. This curatorial experience, plus research projects developed as part of her work as a lecturer in the Faculty of Art, Media and Design at the University of the West of England was of enormous value when it came to researching her memoir.
She enjoys travel, gardening, galleries, walking and photography.