Me looking entirely natural at home (just kidding. This is from a Telegraph photo shoot in a hotel)

Hello!

Thanks for coming to visit. I’m a British journalist and author, and I spend most of my time sitting at my kitchen table in South London, making cups of tea whenever I get stuck halfway through writing a sentence (this happens a lot). Oh ok, sometimes I also have a biscuit. Or five biscuits. And a piece of toast and marmalade. I’ve written five novels, which you can read about on this site, and I’m working on my sixth one at the moment, in between snacks.

I didn’t start out life as a novelist. Having graduated from the LSE, I started out life, or grown-up life, anyway, as a journalist on the Evening Standard newspaper in London. There, I wrote about things like the maple syrup diet, doing four hours of cardio a day to exercise like Madonna, and accidentally travelling to Amsterdam on my brother’s passport.

Then, looking for an adventure, I went to work for a newspaper in Abu Dhabi (near Dubai, for the geographically-challenged among us) called The National. I lived in the Gulf for two years, writing about its growing art, film and fashion scene, and I interviewed a Backstreet boy on the phone while sitting naked on my bed (I think it was Brian), because I had to fit him in between my shower and going out for supper.

Early attempts at writing
Me on the cover of Tatler magazine
My Tatler leaving cover

After that it was back home to London to work for the Daily Mail’s features desk. I wasn’t a writer there, I was an editor. During the two years I worked for the paper, my favourite headlines were: ‘Is your shampoo making you fat?’ and ‘THE DOWNSIDE TO BEATING CANCER.’ I promise you these were both genuine headlines.

Next, I went to work as Features Director at Tatler for five years, where I wrote about dukes and Labradors and Prince Harry’s love life while also working on my first novel. Then, in the summer of 2017, my agent sent me the most exciting email of my life, announcing that I had a book deal. That was the prod I needed to feel brave enough to leave Tatler and become a freelance writer, juggling novels and journalism.

So that’s why I now sit at my kitchen table, scribbling away while eating sugary carbohydrates. Sometimes I have stretches where I concentrate on whatever book I’m writing; sometimes I focus on journalism. I’m not sure I’ve got the balance quite right yet. How did Dickens manage it, that’s what I want to know.

On a more regular basis, I write a weekly column for The Sunday Telegraph called Modern Manners which you can find HERE. I also contribute to various other publications including The Times, The Daily Mail, Style magazine, The Spectator, Elle and Grazia. Occasionally I pop up on telly or the radio talking about important matters like the Royal family or the etiquette of eating a pear. Oh yes, and in 2020, I made a podcast about freezing my eggs. I think it’s my proudest piece of work.

Please feel free to have a scroll through this site and DO get in touch via the contact page if you fancy it.