The quick way to sum up what I am now is: writer, broadcaster and executive coach. But these are the fruits of an extremely wide-ranging career.

My background in the arts, media and corporate worlds has taught me that all work can be art. The big question, the big mystery, is how? That’s what fuels my coaching. That drive to unleash the magic and light the spark.

The first half of my career was focused on literature and the arts. I worked in publishing (at A & C Black and at Faber and Faber) and then at the Southbank Centre, organising more than 100 readings and discussions a year by writers and poets. I then went off to run the Poetry Society and was the first woman in charge since Muriel Spark.

For years, I reviewed fiction, poetry and non-fiction in newspapers and magazines, on top of full-time jobs. In my late-thirties, I left the Poetry Society to become a full-time journalist. I was at the Independent for 10 years, first as deputy literary editor and then as one of the lead interviewers and columnists. During that time, I interviewed writers, artists, poets, rock stars, comedians, film directors, actors, musicians and politicians.

Among others, I interviewed Martin Amis, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Simon Armitage, Bill Bailey, Mary Beard, Bill Bryson, Gordon Brown, Philip Glass, Maggi Hambling, Werner Herzog, Kazuo Ishiguro, Anish Kapoor, Doris Lessing, Roger McGough, Ian McKellen, Carey Mulligan, Philip Pullman, Daniel Radcliffe, Paula Rego, Ali Smith, Zadie Smith, Bryn Terfel, Jacqueline Wilson and Benjamin Zephaniah. Those interviews taught me a great deal about what it takes to turn work into art.

My dramatic departure from The Independent was the spur for me to write my book The Art of Not Falling Apart. It was picked as a book of the year in the New Statesman and the Mail on Sunday, which described it as “a manual on how to survive in the 21^st century”. The book is a mix of memoir and interviews about how we cope when life goes wrong.

My next book, Outside, the Sky is Blue: a family memoir was published in 2022.  It was hailed by The Bookseller as “a wonderful, heart-buffeting family memoir” and picked as their non-fiction Book of the Month.  You can read The Bookseller‘s interview with me here. The book has also had excellent reviews in the Sunday Times, Observer, Guardian, i paper, Daily Express and Daily Mirror, among others, and was picked as a Times and Sunday Times Best Summer Read. 

In addition to my work as  a critic for The Sunday Times. I’m a regular guest on Sky News and the Jeremy Vine Show. I’ve written for the Guardian, The Observer, The Daily Mail, The Times, The Telegraph, The Spectator, The New Statesman and a range of glossy magazines. You can read more about my work, and my writing, here.

I’ve been a chief exec and a non-exec (in the arts, housing and charity sectors). I’m an Orwell Fellow, a Fellow of the RSA and an ambassador for Women on Boards.

I decided to train as a coach because I love helping people find the joy that comes from doing work extremely well. 

I’m an Associated Certified Coach, accredited by the ICF. I’m a team coach, with a certificate in Systemic Team Coaching from the Academy of Executive Coaching. I’m also trained in somatic, group and transformational team coaching. I’m comfortable working with professionals, executives and teams at the highest levels and with people whose dreams don’t relate to a hierarchy.

I’ve worked with clients in banking, financial services and venture capital, but also in healthcare, the media and the arts. Each sector has its own challenges, but the factors that lead to exceptional achievement are broadly the same.

It all starts with beauty and truth.