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 instance, 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 explored the historical links between Birmingham and the countries of the Commonwealth as the city prepared to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games. It is published by The History Press.