My first job after university in 1987 was working as Assistant European Editor for Condé Nast Traveler (ed Harold Evans), Vanity Fair (ed Tina Brown) and Vogue USA (ed Anna Wintour). This led me on to write for Vogue Australia, European Travel and Life, HG, Restaurant Business, and The Evening Standard. I was based in Paris but working for publications primarily in New York and London in English.
I wrote a piece I am proud of that made it into the Figaro, the French daily. I had spotted that the artist studio of Constantin Brancusi, one of my favourite artists, was abandoned, stuck out front of the Pompidou Centre, falling to pieces. The artwork inside was perishing. My article helped galvanise the French authorities to turn this studio space around and restore it to its full glory.
Another time I made it onto the front page of the Figaro. A Canadian journalist friend Karen Burshtein and I had been covering the gypsy festival at Saintes Maries de la Mer in the South of France when the right wing politician Jean-Marie Le Pen showed up. It was an act of pure provocation and upset the gypsies who travel from all over Europe to celebrate their black Virgin Mary. Karen and I decided to confront Le Pen and ask him to leave. His bouncers pushed Karen against a wall and hurt her. Le Pen just glowered at me and spat. But he did leave shortly afterwards. It was my first (unfortunately not last) face to face encounter with fascism. The rest of the festival, I’m glad to say, was a joyful celebration.
In 1990, I moved back to London and became Commissioning Editor for The Tatler and then feature writer for The Daily Mail. The latter taught me to write 1,000 words a day.
Later, I moved into TV journalism. I took a job as on-screen reporter and then producer of ground-breaking Def II series Reportage and Rough Guide to the World, BBC2. These series broke the boundaries of television, by using cutting edge new methods of storytelling, shooting and editing and fostered an original new form of audience engagement.
I have used my journalism training throughout my career and one of the highlights for me was The Big Story, ITV. I produced and directed this flagship weekly investigative current affairs series hosted by Dermot Murnaghan. Highlights were an investigation into EU grants corruption in Greece, an investigation into bribery in the Olympics Committee and an explosive encounter with Italian fertility lothario Dr Antinori who specialises in IVF for women in their sixties, hosted by British IVF expert Professor Winston.
Another highlight for me as producer director was Africa Express, Channel 4, the series that dug deep into the continent to reveal human stories beyond the clichéd headlines. I produced films in the former Zaire, Congo Brazzavile, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Mozambique.
As an executive producer, my journalism credits include The Secret History of Hacking, The Day the Immigrants Left and Missing, commended in the House of Commons as a show that changes people’s lives for the better.
