I've been a journalist since I was a teenager. It started with work experience on local newspapers during my school holidays, then progressed to internships on national papers when I moved to London for university.
While living in Paris and Mexico City during my degree, I spent time on the foreign desks of Libération and La Jornada newspapers, and interviewed interesting people I stumbled across in Paris for The Guardian's Europe section.
When I graduated, I was offered a trainee position on the Daily Express. That meant getting to grips with tabloid thinking ("Hillary Clinton is wearing a pink suit. Write about pink as a power colour" was my instruction on day one), developing a forensic knowledge of the Spice Girls and auditioning for the TV show Blind Date (I had to walk around the room pretending to be Jimmy Savile combined with Princess Diana. The less said about any of that, the better). But The Express was a great grounding in all sorts of things, including meeting deadlines, running a large, weekly section (arts and entertainment) and dealing with often questionable '90s newsroom culture...
Since 2003, I've been freelance. I moved to Barcelona, qualified as a tennis coach (though never quite had the nerve to teach anyone) and taught English to port-workers straight off their night shifts. But journalism came calling again - and specifically, property journalism. This was the era when all sorts of new markets were emerging. You could buy houses in Bulgaria, Thailand and off-location bits of the Caribbean for the cost of a mid-market car - and Brits were leaping at the chance. Spain became one big supermarket sweep. Why buy one flat when you can buy three? And newspaper editors wanted to know all about it. So that's how I found my niche as a property writer and it's one that's kept me entertained and busy over the last 20+ years, through a global financial crisis, market booms and busts, the Covid pandemic, Brexit...
The best bit about wearing a property hat is getting to travel all over the world. I meet interesting people, explore amazing places and see some incredible properties. I've also met my fair share of sharks disguised as developers and seen plenty of fields of dreams whose luxury homes never saw the light of day. I currently write mainly for the Financial Times, Telegraph Luxury magazine, The Times/Sunday Times, The London Magazine, Sphere Life magazine and the Daily Telegraph.
I'm a copywriter too, analysing property markets and trends, writing about everything from new developments and regenerating locations to super-prime retirement homes and design topics for blogs, brochures, website copy and more. Regular clients include Savills, Rive Gauche London, Auriens Chelsea and Lodha UK.
Away from my laptop, I try to spend as much time as possible in Spain and Portugal with my family, generally running and jumping around, drinking wine and gazing out to sea with the sun on my face.