Journalism
I've been a journalist for 25 years and I love my job - I love chatting to people and hearing about their lives and I love writing. I also like news and gossip (receiving it, analysing it and especially the delicious feeling of passing it on!). I'm also a regular judge at the North East Press Awards.
I freelance for the Daily Express, the Sunday Express and the Daily Telegraph, and I cover health, parenting, dieting and relationships, but I also do human interest features for magazines and other papers now and then. Over the 15 years I've been freelance my work has appeared in Woman, Woman's Own, SHE, Best, Bella, The Mirror, The People, That's Life, Pick Me Up, Yours and Love It and I was acting Parenting Editor for the Sunday Express in 2007.
No two days are the same in my job and I love that. Not long ago I was lucky enough to travel to Hinterglemm in Austria on a press trip, then I wrote a piece about women whose mums died young.
I also get to do some travel writing which means reviewing hotels and sampling holidays - a dream job for any Sagittarian. This year's big trip was to Brazil, which was big and beautiful - braziliant, as Jack put it. A future sub for The Sun in the making there.
Online
- To make friends, first find out who you are..., Daily Express, 15/09/2008
- Moving? Child's play, Daily Telegraph Weekend section, 13/09/2008
- "Boost your energy in an instant", Sunday Express, 07/04/2008
- "Island holidays", The Northern Echo, 02/02/2008
- "Life coaches: A guide in the field of dreams", Daily Telegraph, 29/12/2007
- "How I got my bounce back", Daily Express, 19/11/2007
- "Our husbands had never seen us slim", Daily Express, 19/11/2007
- "We refused to be fat at 40", Daily Express, 17/09/2007
- "Revamp your life", Daily Express, 04/06/2007
- "Spice up your marriage", Daily Express, 07/05/2007
- "If I can lose weight, you can too", Daily Express, 26/02/2007
- "Monkey business", The Northern Echo, 27/01/2007
Offline
- "When it comes to giving gifts to children, less is more", Sunday Express, 18/03/2007
- "Could text-speak really spell the end for good grammar?", Sunday Express, 11/03/2007
- "Children need a role model - not a martyr", Sunday Express, 04/03/2007
- "Licensed to thrill", Sunday Express, 02/01/2005