Freelance Writing
In the past I had some success with writing articles for Hertfordshire Life magazine (some commissioned) and The Lady website, both now defunct. Nothing to do with me! I was a freelance sub for Thomson Holidays, now tui, for a year and a half as they wanted all their new and existing holiday brochures to have the same ‘voice’. Unfortunately, the job didn’t entail visiting the countries I was writing about – everything was researched on-line, but this must have helped with the books I was to write in the future. I loved this work and would often be typing into the early hours, unaware of the time. I think it must have been Thomson’s glowing reference that got me into a Master of Arts course on Creative Writing at Brunel University – the only student to attend without a degree.
This was wonderful. My tutors were Celia Brayford, author of nine novels including Writing Historical Fiction, which was my chosen genre, and Fay Weldon who was attributed to the slogan ‘go to work on an egg’ as well as being a prolific writer with over fifty published books.
During this time, I had some success with stories printed in People’s Friend magazine, and a half-hour story accepted by Radio 4 entitled Flaws which was read by Bill Wallis, TV and radio character actor, and Nerys Hughes, actress and producer, especially known for her part in The Liver Birds.
I began writing a historical novel whilst at university, and I’m still writing it! However, I’m determined that the current manuscript will be my final draft. I have changed the title numerous times, but at present it is known as The Man Who Changed the News. Watch this space!
Thanks to an introduction from Wendy Turner (wendyturner.org.uk), I now write non-fiction books for Amberley Publishers. To date I have published A-Z of Aylesbury – Places, People, History, and similar books entitled A-Z of Windsor & Eton, Secret Windsor & Eton, A-Z of Rochester, and the current A-Z of Dorchester, published in spring 2026.
Each book is 20,000 words long and contains 100 photographs, the majority of which are taken by me, despite my earlier disaster. The work involves much research on-line, and also ferreting out interesting and entertaining information on the towns involved.