My first job in journalism was as a reporter on the Kent & Sussex Courier in 2003. But things have changed a lot since I covered parish council meetings and car crashes. After a short stint on Money Marketing, I stumbled into writing about money and discovered a rather geeky interest in personal finance.

I have been freelance since 2004 – a time when house prices were going through the roof, the economy was looking pretty healthy, and borrowing money was easy.

But just four years later everything had changed and I was writing about the credit crunch and subsequent Global Financial Crisis in 2008/9. Little did I know that another, completely different, financial crisis would follow, with much of 2020 and 2021 taken up by writing about the financial impact of Covid-19.

Whatever the economic situation, the subjects I writes about remain broadly the same: Mortgages, property, leasehold/freehold, insurance, banking, savings, debt, money saving, student finance, household bills, pensions, investments, and general money management.

In May 2013 I won two awards at the Headline Money Awards: Freelance Financial Journalist of the Year and Household Money Journalist of the Year. The judges described me as “Refreshing and quirky” and “An ideas machine”.

I was highly commended in the Freelance category in both 2012 and 2014

In 2020, I was shortlisted for Scoop of the Year at the Property Press Awards and for Personal Finance Story of the Year at the Headline Money Awards.