Born and raised in Birmingham, Tina, who is of Chinese heritage, was adopted in 1985 to local couple Jean and Ronald Freeth, who influenced her Brummie sense of humour which often pervades her writing.     

                           

 

 

Tina only began writing fiction in the 2006 after accepting a place on the Birmingham Libraries Original Skin Project. The result was the publication of her first piece of fiction 'Lychees and Bingo Balls' in an anthology of short fiction.

In January 2007, Tina passed the qualifying module of the new National Academy of Writing's diploma course which was based at Birmingham City  University. Along with sixteen other writers from all over the country (and even one from Berlin!) she began learning about the craft of writing. Tina's confidence as a writer grew as she found she liked to try various writing forms from fiction to screenwriting.

For Tina, writing about the lives of ordinary people she observes on a day-to-day basis has been a trend of her work. Tina believes that everyday experiences hold a touch of the extraordinary within them and tries to capture that in her writing.

Tina's previous jobs have included working as a grants writer for various charities and she even had a short spell as a cleaner whilst studying her Masters in 2002. Tina believes that all experiences assist in giving a writer material for story ideas, she thinks that even cleaning toilets and sinks can be turned into a riveting narrative with a few well chosen words.

Despite having her roots in Birmingham, Tina has also lived in Berkeley, California and Taipei, both of which remain very close to her heart. Tina's often funny and insightful writing style has already been likened by her peers to authors such as and Jackie Kay and Alan Bennett. Recently, Tina began work on her memoir about her upbringing as a Chinese 'Brummie'. She has also been involved with the Arvon Foundation as a prose tutor for the Chinese Writers' Project and has a play performed as part of Yellow Earth Theatre's Dim Sum Nights Tour in 2012.

Her favourite authors are Haruki Marakami and John Irving.

Tina did have a cat who decided to leave her after a ten year relationship...only the cat knows why she left.