About
"Good quality reporting and a passion for crusading journalism" is how Times associate editor Brian Macarthur described my work as a reporter on a central London weekly newspaper.
Joining the paper in 1995 after a postgraduate journalism course where I won the best writer and interviewer award, my reports for the Westminster News on central London's biggest and most dilapidated hostel for asylum seekers sparked my interest in social affairs. My campaign won me the runner-up prize in the Commission for Racial Equality's annual media awards.
After becoming news editor of the local newspaper group, I went into freelance news reporting for the Times, the Express and the Evening Standard. I joined the staff of the Evening Standard, first as a reporter, then Local Government Correspondent, breaking stories including those on asylum and squatters' rights. My campaigning series on housing London's key workers was published well before the issue hit the political mainstream.
Leaving the Standard after three years to move into feature writing, I worked for women's magazines such as Marie Claire, She, Cosmopolitan and Real. I also wrote for The Guardian, for which I helped produce a major supplement on key worker housing, and Time Out, for which I wrote a series investigating Ken Livingstone's record in his first term as London Mayor. My interest in housing led to 18 months as Assistant Editor of the weekly trade magazine Housing Today at a time when housing issues had shot up the political agenda.
More recently, I have worked as a commissioning editor for The Guardian, written extensively for its Society pages, edited housing policy reports for the charity Shelter and contributed to the first major progress report on the Government’s Together campaign (Antisocial Behaviour Unit). I also contribute to specialist local government and regeneration titles such as LGC and Building. Other commissions include the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's quarterly journal, Search and publications issued by the Home Office and Department for Communities and Local Government.