Contact
Tell me what the full stop is hiding
The form reaches me directly and I answer everything within a week, including the ones I have to say no to.
Three things
What to write to me about
Commissions
Reported features from three thousand words upwards, on water, freight, power or anything with a committee behind it. I take one a quarter and I am currently booked to February. Tell me the subject, the length, the deadline and whether there is a travel budget; the first three are negotiable and the fourth decides whether the piece is possible.
Rates on request
Talks, readings and teaching
Festivals, trade conferences, engineering schools and one memorable drainage board. From spring 2027 there is a book to read from. I teach one week a year on long-form reporting and take on two mentees at a time, usually from regional newsrooms.
Fee depends on the room
The book
Low Water is out in spring 2027 from Harrow & Peel. Serial rights, extracts, translation and anything contractual go to my agent at Wren & Ash, who is better at it than I am. Review copies are handled by the publisher; ask me and I will point you at the right person.
Via my agent
Write to me
Say what it is, how long you want it, and when you need it. If there is a reporting budget, say so in the first paragraph; it changes what I can offer. Pitches for me to write elsewhere are welcome. Press releases are read and almost never answered.
Before you write
The five questions that always come
How far ahead should I commission?
Four months for anything reported, six if it needs access that somebody has to approve. I am booked to February and holding one slot in spring deliberately empty.
Will you write to a word count?
Yes, and I file within a hundred words of it. What I will not do is agree a count before we both know what the piece is; that is how three thousand good words become five thousand thin ones.
Will you travel?
Gladly, and usually by train because half of what I write about is visible from one. Expenses agreed in advance, receipted, and I do not bill for the days I spend reading.
Do you take copywriting or ghostwriting?
Reports and catalogue essays under my own name, yes. Anything where a company's words appear over my byline, or mine under somebody else's, no. It is not a moral position so much as a practical one: I would be no good at it.
What about rights?
First publication for the agreed territory and period, then the piece comes back to me and I may reprint it here. Notes and recordings stay mine. If your contract says otherwise we should discuss it before the pitch, not after the draft.