Hello, nice to meet you
After studying at the London School of Journalism, I spent four years as senior writer/food editor at Food and Travel Magazine. However, I knew the best stories could never be found at a desk so in 2018 I went freelance and moved to Thailand to live with a conscious community. Thus began the nomadic lifestyle that has seen me: ride the Trans-Mongolian railway; hitch sail from Cuba to Mexico; hike Albania’s Accursed Mountains; live on the small African island of Sao Vicente and spend 18 months in Mexico, where I visited numerous communities establishing ecotourism projects. I recently returned to the UK and split my time between Devon and London.
Why the sustainability angle?
It was while sailing to Indonesia’s Spice Islands that I saw a dugong attempt to r*pe a sailor. Locals told me fishermen had killed the other dugongs in the area and consequently this survivor tried to mate with humans whenever he could get his flippers on them. Something about this bizarre image allowed me to really comprehend the extent to which the relationship between humans and the natural world – of which we are a part – has become warped. I knew I wanted to use my writing to amplify the voices of those taking action to redress this balance.
Stories alone aren’t going to change the extractive behaviour that is causing this crisis. But I believe collaboration across knowledge fields might – and that stories can help build those bridges.