Creative Advertising alumna becomes a bestselling author with HarperCollins UK debut novel
17 April 2026
“Spending that year in Falmouth is one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself,” says MA Creative Advertising alumna Caitlin Breeze, who has gone on to not only become a multidisciplinary marketing leader, delivering brand strategy and creative for brands such as The L’Oreal group, Penguin Books and Marie Curie, but is now a debut novelist and USA Today bestselling author.
Published earlier this year with HarperCollins UK, The Fox Hunt is a young adult fantasy novel which has been described as “elegantly marrying feminist fairytale with dark academia” by Imogen Russell Williams at The Guardian. It follows the story of Emma Curran, a naïve student who is ripped away from her mortal life and transformed into something beastly after dark magic spills through her university.
We caught up with Caitlin to learn more about the advice she has for aspiring authors, how Cornwall became her favourite place in the world and how “so much of what I draw on today as a novelist comes from the skills I built at Falmouth”.
What drew you towards dark academia and did your time as a student at Falmouth help to support the academic setting of your novel in any way?
So much of dark academia is about the fantasy of belonging. There’s something compelling about the image of stepping into a prestigious place and being changed by it: learning its rituals, absorbing its atmosphere, becoming part of something that feels larger and older than yourself. I think we all love the fantasy elements of the genre: the ancient libraries, the hidden societies, the secrets behind the glittering façades. But dark academia stories don’t just glorify tradition: they pose questions about who these places exclude, and what price they exact in return for belonging.
I think the fairytale element is actually the true heart of The Fox Hunt. The book follows the Alice in Wonderland tradition of a heroine stepping into a strange new world with its own logic and laws, with odd creatures and surreal adventures. I also had great fun playing with the elements of Beauty and the Beast in the story: reversing the expected transformations and roles in the fairytale.
I think my time as a student at Falmouth had a lot more to do with supporting that fairytale element in the novel, rather than the dark academia of it all. I’m sure most people who’ve spent time in Cornwall will agree that being here feels like being closer to magic. So many of the joyous parts of my book – the adventures, the friendships and the sense of discovering a beautiful new place – are all parts that also come from my Falmouth experience!
Where did the idea for The Fox Hunt first come from and what did you want to say through your debut?
The Fox Hunt started with a story a friend told me. One night at Oxford University, some years ago, a group of students held a human fox hunt. The male students styled themselves as hunters, chasing female students as foxes through the city. The image struck me. For us in Britain, fox hunting has a special association with those who inherit their power. With privilege left unchecked for so long, it believes it has the right to destroy all in its path. And so, a human fox hunt became the central piece in the manuscript I would then write up as The Fox Hunt.
I also drew on the history of Oxbridge dining societies: the ones with rituals of excess, freedom from consequence and a habit of producing the people who later run the country. I was interested in exploring what happens when only certain people are told they are destined to rule; how power becomes self-mythologising and how groups convince themselves they are custodians of something ancient and therefore untouchable. I wanted to explore what happens when someone steps in to bring those ancient bargains with power crashing down. I wanted to tell that underlying story – how one person can have the power to disrupt traditional power systems – through the lens of magic. Because when you think about privilege and inherited power, they are invisible systems channeling power. Which sounds like another term for magic, don’t you think?
At their heart, fantasy stories are ways to understand our world and our choices within it. So, I hope that as readers follow my heroine’s adventures, they come away from the story feeling fired up about their own power to make change, and their right to stand up to outdated systems.
What advice would you give to someone who would love to become a published author?
Best advice: that there’s no one right path to becoming an author! For some, writing courses are invaluable: but others might find it suits them better to squirrel away and work up their book all by themselves before showing anyone. Likewise, writing schedules: fitting in writing a little every day is something many writers swear by. But I’ve always been more of a ‘sprint’ writer, blocking out weeks or weekends to focus intensely. I used to feel very badly about this, worrying that struggling to write every day meant I lacked discipline. Now I feel quite differently! Whatever gets you to the finish line is good.
My advice really comes down to this: you need to be far, far kinder to yourself as the writer you are right now. You’ll find a thousand different ways to beat yourself up over your book: we all do. But could you today find two or three mean things you usually say to yourself about your writing, and just…stop?
The reason being, writing is not a short process. It took me years to write The Fox Hunt around my full-time job. Especially because it was the first thing I’d attempted to write, and I was learning on the job. So, give yourself the habits that will set you up for longevity. Assessing and improving your work is great. Character assassination is not. You’ll be far better suited to writing as an endurance sport when you make it an achievable, confidence-building part of your life rather than the thing you criticise yourself for most fiercely.
You studied MA Creative Advertising at Falmouth – how did your time on the course help you build your career since graduating?
Falmouth gave me an incredible space to be creative. I remember how brilliant it was being encouraged to branch out into other disciplines and learn from them, to sit with the uncertain process of brainstorming and developing new ideas, to value a sense of adventure and “let’s see” in my work rather than perfectionism. Spending that year in Falmouth is one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself. So much of what I draw on today as a novelist comes from the skills I built then.
It was also a direct preparation for and pipeline into the creative industries, which got me into a career path I loved!
Can you tell us more about the creative work you’ve done since your time at Falmouth?
I went straight from Falmouth into the creative departments of various advertising agencies, and then brand and communications creative roles for tech startups. At first, I specialised in copywriting but then got the chance to work on creative direction that encompassed graphic design, production and filming as well as writing, within branding and communications. It’s exactly the career Falmouth prepared me for, and it was one I felt so lucky to be working in!
Did you find Cornwall as a place inspiring for your creativity?
Cornwall was an utterly inspiring place for my creativity. I fell so in love with it. It’s still one of my favourite places in the world, and the only place I make sure to come back to at least once a year. I actually worked on some of the trickier stages of writing The Fox Hunt while on trips back to Cornwall!
Even in fiction, I found Cornwall a source of inspiration in my creative process. The Fox Hunt owes a great debt to Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Manderley and Cornwall live almost as characters in that book and studying that unlocked a way to bring the setting alive in The Fox Hunt, which I needed to give the sense of a sentient, magical place in the story.
I can’t wait to write a book set in Cornwall. I’m only waiting for a story special enough to do my favourite place justice.
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