Olivia is a barrister turned writer and cook. She grew up in Newcastle before reading English at Cambridge. She was elected the twenty-second female president of the Cambridge Union in 2008, and was called to the bar in 2011. She won the Arden Scholarship, and practised as a criminal barrister for five years.
Now, Olivia spends her time writing and cooking. She is The Spectator’sVintage Chef, and writes about law and popular culture in the New Statesman.
In September 2017 she won the Young British Foodies Fresh Voices In Food Writing Award, and in April 2019 she was shortlisted for the Fortnum & Mason Cookery Writer of the Year Award. She is the winner of the 2020 Fortnum & Mason Debut of the Year Award and the 2020 Guild of Food Writers Food Writer of the Year Award.
Her memoir is currently in development for TV drama.
