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 (a mentoring project resulting in an anthology). Tina's only experience of writing before being on the project was academic essays, personal letters and e-mails. Being accepted as a 'mentee' for the anthology was Tina's first step to realising her dream to write for a living. Since writing 'Lychees and Bingo Balls' for the anthology, Tina has written other short stories and gained a place as part of the first intake of students on the National Academy of Writing, Diploma in Writing Course (at Birmingham City University).

In January 2007, Tina passed the qualifying module along with sixteen other writers from all over the country, and even one from Berlin! Since beginning the course, Tina's confidence as a writer has grown considerably. She loves that she is surrounded by talented writers who share the same dream and write simply because nothing else will do.  The quality of writing on the course is extremely high and Tina is constantly inspired by her tutors  and her fellow classmates.  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 MPhil 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 California and Taiwan, 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'.

Her favourite authors are Haruki Marakami and John Irving. Tina has a cat called Mo who has black lips like a goth girl.