Dr Rachel Knightley
Author, Writing and Confidence Coach
Alongside working with my clients – professional and personal coaching and, for under-18s, LAMDA Exams – you'll also find the themes of authenticity, identity and communication in my short story collections, Twisted Branches and Beyond Glass. Plus, of course, the stories I've contributed to anthologies such as British Fantasy Award-nominated Dreamland, Great British Horror 5 (Black Shuck Books) and Uncertainties Vol. 3 (Swan River Press).
I'm also the author of the 2020 GCSE Drama Revision and Study Guide (Illuminate/Hodder) and write and present for magazines, Blu-ray extras and online series including Severin Films, Second Sight Films, Imprint Films, Starburst Magazine and YouTube, Writing Magazine, Jewish Renaissance and Indicator Films.
Twisted Branches
‘Beautifully observed. An intense and unsettling navigation of one family home and what skulks in its shadows.’
- Sophie Hannah
Twisted Branches is a dark domestic noir on familial love, poisoned loyalty and how we, knowingly and unknowingly, mess up and light up each other’s lives.
Artist and matriarch Effie clings to the house five generations of her family called home. But are its ghosts haunting her or is she summoning them? With Effie’s death, rejected protégé Kerry-Alice and daughter-in-law Veronica fight to lay her influence to rest in their own lives, but who is truly haunted and who is doing the haunting?
“Beautifully observed. An intense and unsettling navigation of one family home and what skulks in the shadows.” – Sophie Hannah
If you would like a dedication or signature, please email hello@rachelknightleycoaching.com letting us know the name and any other details.
Beyond Glass
‘In her debut collection Beyond Glass, Rachel Knightley gives voice in exquisite prose to a series of haunted first-person protagonists, bookended by a twisted tale of love and revenge. Drawing on such traditions as the Gothic tale and the conte cruel, Beyond Glass is a wonderful introduction to a talented new writer.’
—Lynda E Rucker, Shirley Jackson Award-winning author of
The Moon Will Look Strange and You’ll Know When You Get There
Your Creative Writing Toolkit
Green Ink Writers' Gym welcomes writers of all levels of experience. Strengthen your fiction and non-fiction and develop your voice, skills, confidence, and word count.
In addition to my published fiction and non-fiction, other features, articles and audio/visual essays include work for Starburst Magazine and YouTube, Severin Films, Indicator Films, Second Sight Films, Writing Magazine, Fangoria and Jewish Renaissance. Awards include the PROMIS Prize for Children's Literature ('The Existence of Tim') and First Prize for Fiction in Writers' Forum Magazine ('Wolf in the Mirror').
More Publications
As Much Bridget Jones as Carrie... Lucky McKee's May (2023)
May
Second Sight Films
English Aesthetic with Giallo Blood: Video Essay on The Seventh Grave (2023)
Danza Macabre vol. 1
Severin Films
Violet Green (2021) Short Story in Dreamland
Black Shuck Books
Midsummer Eve (Oct 2020) Short Story in Great British Horror 5
Black Shuck Books
GCSE Drama Study and Revision Guide (2020)
Illuminate Publishing
Laura (2020) Short Story in Starburst Magazine
Starburst Publishing
Green Lady (2019) Short Story in Legacies of Loss
York Publishing. ed. Catherine Wynne, Valerie Sanders and Richard Meek
Duty of Care (2018) Short Story in Woman's Weekly: December Fiction Special
Ti-Media
Before I Walked Away (2018) Short Story in Uncertainties III
Swan River Press, ed. Lynda E. Rucker
Wolf in the Mirror (2016) Short Story in Writers' Forum
First Prize: Fiction
Extract from 'Anything But Summertime'(2016) in Fusion
CCWC Press, ed. Maggie Hamand
Extract from 'Out of Water' (2014) in Spring
Sullis Press ed. Paul Mayer
The Existence of Tim (2005) Short Story in London Writers Anthology 2005
PROMIS Prize: Children’s Literature
Staged Plays
Behind the Sofa (2024) Director: Paul Collins
The Questors Theatre
Real (2019) Director: David Hovatter
The Questors Theatre
Where the Light Gets In (2016) Director: Hanna Berrigan
Green Ink Theatre, Waterstones Piccadilly
The First Wish (2014) Director: Dominique Gerrard
Endpaper, The Compass Theatre
The Rain Place (2013) Director: Hanna Berrigan
Green Ink Theatre – Green Ink Cabaret, The Grange Theatre
Wanted: Christmas Cheer! (2007) Director: Emily De Cosimo
HENs Theatre Company/The National Trust, Sutton House
Jack the Giant Killer (2007) Director: Emily De Cosimo
HENs Theatre Company/The National Trust, Sutton House
Recordings
Only Way Home (2009) Producer: Josh Weedon
Ealing Studios
Childplay(2009) Producer: Michael SteelPoint
303 Productions/ BBC White City