Every time I mention that I’m a journalist, people always ask the same question: “What kind of things do you write about?” After more than four years fielding this question, I still never have a good answer.
Having spent most of that time as a freelancer, I have covered everything under the sun, from police criminality and broken hospitals to exposés on political corruption; the collapse of Amazon’s drone delivery dreams and mould-ridden houses.
The closest thing to a common thread in my work was supplied by a former editor who liked to call me “the grim reaper” of journalism. “You only show up when someone’s died or something awful has happened,” he explained to me. If you skirt through my investigations for the likes of the Observer, the Sunday Times, the Mirror, Private Eye or openDemocracy, it seems a fair summary.
Anyone who knows me though will attest that I am also defined by an almost religious passion for London. On the occasions where I have laid down the cloak and scythe and ventured into covering marginally happier topics, the through line has almost always been location. Be it leading Vittles' five part pilgrimage across the city’s best pubs or documenting the surprisingly sex-filled world of its Quidditch teams for the Fence, I’ve found documenting this city of nine million people a heady mix of exhilarating and daunting.
I've always believed this city defies simple definitions; a place of massive extremes, whose shape changes completely based on who you ask to describe it. Having spent almost my entire life here, I still feel like I’m just scratching the surface of it.
And that’s what really drew me to Mill Media’s mission to build something new for the capital. As a subscriber to its Manchester outlet The Mill since 2021, from the get-go I admired their dedication to deeply reported, beautifully written journalism that not only reflected but was shaped by the communities they covered. It also helped that they have taken as broad a view of what topics are worth covering as I have.
But more importantly, I don't believe the city I know has ever been properly represented in the press, national or local. We deserve better. But I don’t take that responsibility lightly. So please get in touch, if you have tips, ideas or just want to tell me what this city means to you.
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