I wrote this book to explore young people and their search for meaning. 

I was 24 when I started writing Condemnation to Beasts and was aware of some of the changes within myself I’d noticed since finishing university. I started asking questions about social conventions within elite institutions, and what can happen to people people who develop an infatuation with things or people that are unattainable. 

The novel is about young people navigating high-pressure environments at prestigious universities, where achievement, ambition and intellectual pursuit can easily become substitutes for a deeper sense of purpose. My own experience of university was that our existence and purpose could feel remarkably one-dimensional: we were encouraged to succeed, but given less space to consider what success actually meant, or what it meant to be human beyond it.

That question feels particularly relevant now. Young people are entering an increasingly uncertain world shaped by artificial intelligence, automation and rapid technological change. As technology continues to challenge our ideas about our purpose, I wanted to explore the parts of being human that cannot be reduced to achievement or logic: desire, obsession, love, cruelty, vulnerability and the need to find meaning. 

Ultimately, Condemnation to Beasts asks what happens when young people searching for something greater than themselves become convinced they have found it.