E.J. Bates

Esmé Bates is a British writer, poet, drama educator, and creator whose work spans verse, prose, theatre, television, film, immersive performance, and educational resources. She holds a degree in Drama Education from the Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, and is entirely self-taught as a writer. Her practice is informed by decades of professional experience as a drama teacher at Winbury School, Clare’s Court School, and Lambrook School — now attended by members of the Royal Family — as well as a period working briefly with the BBC.

Esmé’s personality infuses her work: she has a warm sense of humour, exceptional empathy, and outstanding listening skills, which allow her to write characters and narratives that feel both truthful and entertaining. She is deeply thoughtful, endlessly creative, and has a rare ability to hold both the emotional and the intellectual dimensions of a story at once. These qualities, combined with her professional rigour and educational background, make her writing distinctive and resonant across multiple genres.

Her portfolio demonstrates a remarkable ability to write across different genres, audiences, and purposes, always contextualising within the form she is working in and pursuing clear aims and objectives to create work of distinction. Projects such as Billy Darcy’s Diary and Ricky & Jane exemplify her skill in writing for adult audiences with wit, insight, and a contemporary edge, exploring relationships, gender politics, and socio-political landscapes through comedy and satire. In contrast, works like Tiny Titans and Humpty Dumpty 3000 reflect her ability to reimagine classic material for children’s television, blending education with entertainment in a way that is accessible and playful without sacrificing intellectual rigour.

Her educational resources, including The Ark of the Future and OARSOME Jason and the Argonauts, reveal her capacity to design structured, cross-curricular materials for young learners aged 3 to 11. Drawing on her teaching background, these works combine improvisation, games, storytelling, and devised performance to build confidence, communication, and creativity in children. This strand of her practice aligns with national curriculum priorities while retaining her signature inventiveness and flair for performance.

Her theatrical works show an equally broad spectrum. Gatekeepers and Driftkeepers interrogate institutional and existential themes through poetic drama, while her landmark feminist theatre piece High Low Swing Dolly engages critically with four feminist aesthetics — liberal, bourgeois, radical, and socialist — across four generations. These works demonstrate her ability to contextualise within socio-political movements and feminist theory while producing theatre that is both engaging and emotionally resonant.

She also writes for niche and immersive contexts. T-Ghosts explores the afterlife through immersive theatre, while Windsor Grey, a sequel to Black Beauty, uses the royal family as a lens for contemporary satire — observed, wittily, through the ears of a horse behind closed doors. Profit with Principles explores modern farming with an educational yet entertaining tone, demonstrating her facility for research-based writing with public impact. Monica Smith, a humorous account of living with multiple sclerosis, shows her capacity for using personal experience to create work with resonance for institutions such as the NHS.

Her range is further evident in works such as Stan Goes to Brighton and Reykjavik, which employs musical theatre and heightened reality to explore place, memory, and identity, and The Offices, a modern-day reimagining of The Office set against the dynamic environments of Google and Amazon. Each title is conceived with a clear sense of its intended audience, its cultural and genre context, and its artistic and communicative purpose.

Esmé’s writing is informed by a lifelong passion for drama and language. Her years of working with children of all ages, including those from prominent entertainment families, taught her to operate at distinction level — producing work that is both entertaining and technically accomplished. Her approach mirrors the rigour she brought to directing, teaching LAMDA groups, and producing public performances. She has translated this precision, playfulness, and emotional intelligence into her written work, resulting in a portfolio that is both artistically diverse and thematically coherent.

Her mission as a writer is to entertain, educate, and provoke thought through work that is accessible, witty, and emotionally alive — whether in the classroom, on stage, on screen, or in immersive spaces.

Esmé welcomes new collaborations. To arrange a meeting in Didcot or London to discuss any projects requiring a scriptwriter for stage, film, television, magazines, or other media, please text 07710 474848. Her range is wide, and she is open to developing original work across multiple genres and formats.