I have a degree in English language and literature from Oxford University.
I spent 14 years working in internal communications at the John Lewis Partnership (JLP). For seven years I was responsible for producing a staff magazine for the John Lewis department store in Cambridge. This job included writing news and features, subbing others’ copy, and designing and laying out pages. I learnt these last skills the old-fashioned way, pasting up on a light box and using Letraset for headlines (great discipline), later graduating to desktop publishing on Quark XPress. I then moved on to the Gazette, the Partnership’s main internal publication and the oldest corporate in-house magazine in the country, where I worked as a reporter, feature writer and subeditor.
I moved to west Dorset in early 2007 and went freelance. My corporate work since then has included a number of training manuals for staff working in John Lewis customer delivery, warehousing and administration, and a monthly internal magazine for staff at the Leckford Estate, a 4,000-acre working farm owned by Waitrose.
I was the subeditor on the Sherborne Girls’ alumnae magazine, produced annually, for six years. I have completed numerous design projects for local businesses, and worked layout shifts at the popular Marshwood Vale magazine. In 2014 I switched from Quark XPress to Adobe InDesign for layout and desktop publishing.
I am editor and production editor of The Bridge, a community magazine for Bridport supported by the Anglican Church.