About Me
Hello and welcome to my website.
I’m an international award winning freelance journalist, author, copywriter, ghostwriter and university teacher, with 25 years experience working for national newspapers, magazines and online publications.
I have built a long and consistent career from interviewing people in all walks of life and turning their words into print for traditional media and digital platforms.
After initially cutting my teeth on three fast paced press agencies, I discovered it’s the most ordinary of people who have the most extraordinary of stories.
At 23 I took the plunge to go freelance and have never looked back.
I have spent the last 25 years producing articles for national newspapers and women’s magazines, as well as helping those who need media attention secure a place on the couch on shows including This Morning, Good Morning Britain, Loose Women and the Victoria Derbyshire show.
As well as writing true-life articles, I have also helped launch campaigns to change the law, raised tens of thousands for children who needed life-changing surgery, sensitively and empathetically represented parents during the most testing times of their lives across the media as well as exposing scandals and highlighting groundbreaking medical developments with the most heartwarming of results, all of which you can see in my portfolio.
After engaging and co-facilitating media workshops for several years, I took on a journalism teaching post at The University of Sheffield, in September 2019, where I am now the MA Journalism course leader, working across several modules teaching news writing, feature writing and multimedia production, ensuring our students are equipped to start work as journalists in a fast paced, digital environment.
I’ve also written six books. My non-fiction social history book, Women of Steel, was published in June 2020. Please do take a look at my Facebook blog, uncovering some of the most fascinating stories of the formidable women who not only survived but conquered World War Two. I have also written a historical fiction series, The Steel Girls, based on this remarkable generation. My first ghost-written book, an auto-biographical life story for Penguin was published in November in 2018.
I’m also available for commercial copywriting and enjoy nothing more than creating engaging audience friendly content for clients.
So whether you are sharing your story for the first time, need ongoing support within the media or require an experienced and trusted writer to help promote your business with engaging audience friendly content, or just require a helping hand gaining awareness and publicity, please don’t hesitate to get in touch – I’m always happy to chat.
Whatever work I am engaged in, my ethos has always been based on people work with people and I pride myself on nurturing long-lasting relationships with the people and companies I work with.
But don’t just take my word for it, as well as being awarded the International Media Award from Variety, The Children’s Charity, here are of a couple of testimonials from those who entrusted me.
From Joan Lawrence, mother of Claudia Lawrence who disappeared in 2009. I have worked with Joan for over 8 years now.
Like me Michelle is a people person and goes way beyond the role of a journalist to get to the heart of the stories that she has to cover. She really feels for people in some heartbreaking situations.
I first met Michelle some 8 or 9 years ago when she came to interview me for a magazine.
Michelle has been a huge help in keeping me informed, she has helped me to find some confidence, which I lacked when we first met. We now have a close friendship and she works tirelessly keeping Claudia’s name in the public eye.
I have commissioned Michelle several times over the years both at Variety, the Children’s Charity and JetEngage. She has always been utterly dependable, working to incredibly tight deadlines and thoroughly engrossed herself into a project to ensure the job is done to an excellent standard.
I recently commissioned, Michelle to write some very highly technical and specialist content for JetEngages’s launch website, our marketing and presentation documents.
At all times, she worked beyond our brief and exceptionally hard to relay the right message, in the appropriate tone of voice needed for a corporate facing audience. I look forward to working with Michelle again very soon and would have no hesitation in recommending her for any future copy writing roles for digital or print publications.
Whether you have a story to tell or you are a business that needs some expertise producing engaging content or just require a helping hand gaining awareness and publicity, don’t hesitate to get in touch, I’d love to hear from you.