In a wide-ranging and varied career, I have worked as a journalist for magazines and newspapers in the UK and Singapore, popped up as a broadcast reporter on BBC local radio and then moved into digital journalism on an NGO website.

As a result, I have reported on a lot of interesting stories, from the engineering firm introducing electricity to a primary school in a remote part of Borneo to the battle to save a community hospital in Shropshire.

Editing and production work is part of my stock-in-trade too. As a website editor for Christian Aid, for example, I was responsible for developing the NGO’s microsites for Ireland, Scotland and Wales as well as project-managing the launch of a new section called What We Do on the main website. This covered important overseas stories such as the plight of refugees living on the Thai-Myanmar border, the launch of a pioneering all-woman community radio station in southern India, and the effect of climate change on farmers in Tanzania.

More recently, though, I have turned my hand to writing books. The first was a travel book, Mudlark River, which tells the story of a journey I made down the River Thames in 2013. The second, and most recent, is a history book, From Gas Street to the Ganges, which explores the historical links between Birmingham and countries of the Commonwealth as the city prepares to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games.