I have written ten published books.
My memoir The Elegant Art of Falling Apart has been published in Australia, UK and Poland.
I have also co-authored and ghostwritten nine books in the fields of style and popular culture. Those have been translated into many languages, and some appeared on The Sunday Times, The New York Times, and Amazon bestseller lists.
Currently, I am engaged in a series of celebrity interviews for a forthcoming book about music, Hollywood, and fashion.
I also understand the need that brands have for compelling stories based on coherent insights. Since 2014 I have been freelancing with brand strategists Abensour & Partners on projects for global brands. The work encompasses: devising ethnographic research, conducting in-depth interviews, writing the stories that those interviews engender, contributing to the distillation of insights that emerge, and working with filmmakers and illustrators to bring the insights to life.
I have created and written several blogs.
Chemo Chic communicates mind-numbingly complex and plain scary information about cancer, in a way that it is funny, accessible, and sticks in the mind. Chemo Chic was the subject of a cover story for The Times Weekend section and was also named by The Times as one of 40 Blogs that Really Count.
The Good Glamour Guide was a blog about beauty, with a twist: it spoke about toxicity in beauty products, explained the issues with clarity and wit, and provided effective, glamorous, and desirable alternatives. The Telegraph's weekend supplement magazine, Stella, commissioned a four-page feature based on the blog. In terms of reader response, it was their most successful article of that year. The Good Glamour Guide was awarded runner-up in the Best Independent Blogs category at the Johnson & Johnson Beauty Journalism awards.
From 2007-2014 I was Head of Online Creative Strategy for Trinny & Susannah. That involved formulating their overall communications strategy, devising research and conducting focus groups, creating, writing and editing their blog, writing and directing films for their YouTube channel, and editing their Social Media feeds. I wrote their regular column in The Sun, and the marketing material for Trinny & Susannah for Littlewoods catalogue.
My deep interest in people and their stories has led to my current studies in the fields of applied positive psychology and cultural anthropology.
Essential to all my work is the ability to discover and convey universal truths through personal stories.
Work history
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Freelance Writer & StrategistAbensour & Partners
London, United KingdomFreelance
Brand Stories, Research, and Insights
The work encompasses: conducting in-depth ethnographic interviews, writing the stories that those interviews engender, contributing to the distillation of insights that emerge, and working with filmmakers and illustrators to bring the insights to life.
Some examples:
For Nestlé Regional Spring Waters (North America), I travelled to six cities across the USA, finding and interviewing people that I met along the way, in order to uncover their unique and differing local cultures and attitudes. This was fascinating work. The resulting stories, photographs and video were published as a blog and a series of short films. The work informed the positioning strategy for six major brands.
For Nestlé Waters (global) I undertook face-to-face interviews with consumers in their homes across the UK, having lunch or dinner with them around the family table, to find out what makes their mealtime tick. I also interviewed sommeliers, chefs, and maîtres d', whose professional insights helped to illuminate the research.
For Unilever I interviewed environmental experts in government institutions, NGOs and academic think-tanks in Europe, UK and USA to learn their views on the future of sustainable product development.
Researched and wrote an internal blog for Nestlé Regional Spring Waters (North America). Based on strategic insights, it communicates key messages to employees through the medium of their own first-person life stories.
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AuthorSelf
London, United KingdomFreelance
I have written ten published books.
My memoir 'The Elegant Art of Falling Apart' is published in Australia, UK and Poland.
In 2003 Trinny & Susannah were a television sensation. We wrote a book together and it was a hit. I went on to write, in total, seven books for T&S. Those have been translated into many languages, and some have appeared on both The Sunday Times and The New York Times bestseller lists.
Currently, I am writing 'Vanity Project - A Tale of Style and Celebrity' with David Thomas and Boy George. Vanity Project will be an image-led coffee-table book that includes a portfolio of arresting first-person stories from actors and musicians. To be published in 2018.
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Skills
- Author
- Blogs
- Features
- Copywriter
- Published Writer
- Interview
- Market and Social Research
- Style
- Ethnography
- Ghost Writer
- Memoir Writing
- Qualitative Research
- Communications Strategy
- Workshop Design
- Workshop Delivery
Education
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MSc Applied Positive PsychologyAnglia Ruskin
Cambridge, United Kingdom