Journalism:
I’ve worked as a journalist for over 20 years – qualifying (NCTJ) in Newspaper Journalism and winning a sponsorsed traineeship from The Guardian newspaper (Scott Trust). After initially getting work experience at my local weekly newspapers (North Manchester Guardian and the Bury Times), I then worked on the brilliant regional daily, The Manchester Evening News, where I won a couple of awards and really got into feature writing and interviewing.
Following this I began writing for the arts/culture section of The Guardian. My very first national newspaper feature being an interview with a then unknown Bolton comedian called Peter Kay!
I then went on to work for various national tabloids and broadsheets in London (news, women’s desk, features, showbiz), as well as writing, editing and freelancing on many of the women’s mags. I was Chief Feature Writer on OK! where I also edited and negotiated many top deals.
Looking back, I spent an unhealthy amount of time writing about and interviewing the Beckhams … but had a hoot interviewing the likes of Burt Reynolds, the Spice Girls and Elton John… and attending some really spectacular celeb weddings around the globe, in the days of big money magazine deals and when celeb journalism was certainly not as saturated as it is now.
These days I am more of a comment/observational feature writer and have to say I do not miss being a full-time reporter.