I am a journalist, writer, editor and university lecturer. I’ve been a newspaper journalist for 15 years and write about food, feminism, culture and the environment, mostly for The i Paper and The Independent. I have also written for The Guardian and the Evening Standard.
I have edited on daily papers and weekly sections, and launch edited a number of consumer publications.
After 15 years in central London, I now live by the sea in Kent and work in both places.
I have written about food for many years and am passionate about preserving and promoting the acts of cooking and eating well to benefit all of us.
I am especially interested in stories about how we eat, food history and ethics and food and restaurant trends. I also love stories about the environment and global culture, looking at how social change impacts our behaviours. For example I wrote about why we’re living in tiny homes, why everyone argues about when women learned to masturbate, and why LEGO should ditch its stupid sets for girls and promote gender equality.
I spent my twenties on staff at The Independent. As a feature and comment writer I had the opportunity to write all sorts of stuff I care deeply about such as equality, the environment and, of course, food. I reported from Brazil, Tanzania, Iceland, Argentina and the US and wrote a weekly comment page on current affairs and the paper’s blog on green and ethical issues.
My first job was working on The Independent’s Media Weekly section, where I got to interview the great, the good and the terrible from the industry, and stay in the office until 9pm every Friday night to fax a proof to a pedantic columnist.
For a long time I wrote food, travel and book reviews for The Independent. My work has also appeared in The Financial Times, The Daily Mail, The New Statesman, The Ecologist, The Times, The Independent on Sunday and The Lady.
I also teach journalism and have taught undergrads and postgrads at Goldsmiths, where I did my own MA in Journalism (2003/4). I was Associate Lecturer at London College of Communication (LCC), which is part of University of the Arts, London (UAL), until 2019. I taught a range of courses across theory and practice and it is not hyperbole to say it was a genuine privilege to spend time with young people at this stage in their lives and offer them education and guidance.
I studied Modern and Medieval Languages (French and Spanish) at the University of Cambridge, studying at the Universitat de Barcelona during my year abroad. I have an MA in Journalism from Goldsmiths and an MSc in International Politics from SOAS.
I completed the Faber Academy’s Writing A Novel course in Richard Skinner’s class of 2017/18 and am working on my debut.
I also do copywriting for brands and work with businesses as a media consultant. This might involve helping them launch a new website, organise their social media marketing or develop a publicity strategy.
When I’m not working I stress myself out doing too many of the things I enjoy at once: eating, cooking, reading, exploring bars and restaurants, walking, running, yoga, snowboarding, hanging out with my family and travelling to new places and old favourites. I spent a lot of time travelling and working in South America in my twenties, now the focus has shifted to North America where my husband grew up. I dream about French food the most but my favourite country is probably Portugal. In 2018 I decided to commit to reading more and read 52 books and wrote short reviews of each (see more on my Fiction page). I am trying to keep this up. My ambitions for life are happiness, true engagement with other human beings and a three-day work week, being able to sing like Kate Bush and drive in other countries. Rocking up at an airport – any airport – and being brave enough to hire a tiny hatchback or a massive fuck off truck and trundle off into the smog is, for me, one definition of freedom.