United Kingdom
I am journalist with more than 20 years' experience including 14 years as the senior features writer and news reporter at the Sunday Express.
Now a freelance journalist, I regularly write news and features for i newspaper as well as my local paper, the Camden New Journal.
High performing comprehensive schools in England, Scotland and Wales take only half the number of poorer pupils as the average school, according to new research by the Sutton Trust. Analysing the number of children eligible for Free School Meals attending top state schools, researchers from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found that in [...]
is supporting Magic Breakfast for our 2020 Christmas charity campaign. Here's how you can help guarantee disadvantaged children a healthy, nourishing meal every morning. Two Glasgow teenagers who raised more than £35,000 to help provide free breakfasts for children across Scotland are to have that sum matched by UK charity Magic Breakfast.
NHS critical care beds could reach their limit this week as Covid-19 hospital admissions continue to rise, according to the chief executive of the NHS Confederation. Danny Mortimer has warned that there is little room left to treat the increasing number of critically ill patients.
is supporting Magic Breakfast for our charity campaign. Here's how you can help guarantee disadvantaged children a healthy, nourishing meal every morning. Generous i readers have for the fourth time smashed our Magic Breakfast Appeal target bringing the current total donated to £229,402. This figure is equivalent to 674,712 Breakfasts.
i is supporting Magic Breakfast for our 2020 Christmas charity campaign. Here's how you can help guarantee disadvantaged children a healthy, nourishing meal every morning. The breakfast club at one primary school has only been running for a year but it has already become an integral part of the routine - not just for the pupils but their parents too.
Sales of first editions have made headlines around the world this week after fetching eye-watering price tags. A copy of William Shakespeare's First Folio - the first collected edition of his plays, from 1623 - was sold by Christie's at auction in New York for a record $9.98m (£7.6m), hot on the heels of the sale of a first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone for £75,000 on Tuesday.
The first film, Life On Camera, is a look at how technological advances have revolutionised natural history film making. It is also, with the help of archive footage from his many programmes, a look at the development of the man who has become one of Britain's best-loved public figures.
Dame Vera Lynn was a young singer entertaining our boys in the Far East during the Second World War when just a simple glass of water seemed a luxury. It was a trip that would for ever change her.
The Duchess Of York is feeling inspired. The charity she founded, Children In Crisis, is 20 years old this year and she has just returned from one of its latest projects: building a school in Liberia, West Africa. "When I was there I was so completely happy," says the Duchess, the charity's founder and Life President.
Sign up for FREE now and never miss the top Royal stories again. We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights. A halo of white hair frames her wise, dark eyes and still handsome face.
Provides local news from the Camden, Islington and Westminster areas.
IMAGINE if the very person who you turn to for help, who you place your trust in, turns out to pose the greatest threat to your wellbeing. This is the premise of novelist Joanna Briscoe's latest novel, The Seduction . In it we meet Beth, who shares a home in Camden with her partner Sol and their daughter Fern.
WHEN Kirsteen Stewart finished writing her debut novel it was only then that it dawned on her just what the story was really about. Break These Chains , which takes place in the 1960s, follows the life of Lydia, who is trying to come to terms with her troubled family history.
Rachel Joyce fleshes out the joyous woman who inspired his epic journey[PH]The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry was such a massive hit, selling more than two million copies, that returning to it might seem like a sell-out. It was a risk that Rachel Joyce had resisted, deciding the story had been told.
Ove is fed up. So fed up that he intends to end it all. His efforts to exit this mortal coil are scuppered time and again, however. For Ove (his name rhymes with mover) is just too useful.
As Joe Biden assembles his team for the presidency, he will also take the lead in considering a role for two furry confidants - his dogs. The German shepherds Champ and Major - currently the First Dogs-Elect - will herald a return of canines to the White House after a dog-free Trump presidency.
A "hell planet" where it rains rocks, its seas are molten lava and winds race at supersonic winds has been discovered. Called K2-141b, it is among one of the most extreme planets discovered beyond the edges of our solar system called exoplanets that are also known as lava planets.
Shop fronts in cities across the US were being boarded up in anticipation of civil unrest following the election results. High-end department store chain Nordstrom said it planned to board up some of its 350 stores and hire extra security for Election Day on Tuesday and beyond.
A train that shot through buffers was saved from plunging into a canal by a sculpture of whale tails. The metro train was left balancing on the tail fins - known as "flukes" - 30ft above ground in the Dutch city of Rotterdam.
Five peacocks which had been roaming around a West Sussex village have been given a new permanent home following a campaign to save them from culling. The five, nicknamed "the boys" by their fans, also had their detractors who complained they caused damage and noise.
Shoppers at several of the big supermarkets chains will face restrictions on the number of items they can buy to prevent the panic stockpiling that saw shelves stripped during lockdown. Morrisons has put a limit of three items per customer on products including toilet rolls and disinfectant products.
Sales of eco-friendly cars have overtaken diesels for the first time in the UK with 33,000 pure electric and hybrid cars registered between April and June. This compares with 29,900 diesel cars, according to figures from the Department for Transport (DfT). The green cars registered included 20,200 different hybrids and 12,600 pure battery-powered cars.
When it comes to printer ink, images of high-end champagne and the heady fragrance of Chanel No 5 do not immediately spring to mind. But it turns out the humble home office staple is more expensive than both - and even 32-year old Scotch is cheaper - according to research by Just one set of replacement cartridges for the Epson Expression Premium XP-900 costs £96.
Volunteers are to be infected with a weakened, computer-designed form of the coronavirus by scientists who believe it could work as a vaccine. This version of the virus has been designed using special computer software and built in a laboratory, according to .
Prince George appears to have become the unwitting focus of a diplomatic row after he was given a prehistoric shark's tooth by Sir David Attenborough. Officials in Malta, where the tooth was discovered, have not responded well to the gesture and say that the fossil should be put on display on the Mediterranean island instead.
Older people who can identify the scent of roses and smells like turpentine and have retained their sense of hearing, vision and touch may have a 50 per cent lower risk of developing dementia compared to those with marked sensory decline, research suggests.
Taking regular exercise, even in areas with high air pollution, can lower the risk of high blood pressure, according to research. Around 91 per cent of people worldwide live in areas where air quality does not meet World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.
Tynygraig Jet has set the record for the most expensive working sheepdog under 12 months sold at auction. He was sold by Dewi Jenkins, of Tal-y-bont in Ceredigion, West Wales, at Skipton Auction Mart in North Yorkshire. The previous record at the centre for a dog under 12 months was £7,035.
Scientists in New Zealand have devised a volcano early warning system which they said would have alerted them 16 hours before a disastrous eruption at White Island last year. That explosion claimed the lives of 21 people, while 26 suffered injuries, many severe, on the site also known as Whakaari.
Gondoliers in Venice have had to reduce the number of passengers they can transport because some tourists have become too heavy for their boats. They said that over the past decade the increasing girth of some passengers made it feel "like bombs loading on" when they boarded, and that their vessels are increasingly taking on water.
Friends Tom Cook and Joseph Feeney vowed in 1992 that if either one of them ever won the Powerball jackpot they would split the money. Fast forward nearly three decades, and that informal handshake agreement was suddenly tested when Tom, from Wisconsin, bought the winning ticket at a shop in his hometown of Menomonie and landed the $22 million (£17 million) prize.
The BBC is poised to reinstate BBC3 to television screens after a five-year hiatus. It is expected to return to a linear channel, which means it would go back to the more traditional way of viewing, where audiences watch a scheduled television programme at the time and on the channel it is broadcast .
A new nature study launched today will investigate how wellbeing is affected by our connection to the natural world. Called 'Nature up close and personal: A wellbeing experiment', it is inviting thousands of people across the UK to sign up for the simple, 10-minute, nature-based activities for five days across a week.
It certainly is a soaring success - for Madeline's achievement means she has now entered the US Navy record books. It has only taken...110 years. Madeline, who is from Virginia, and is assigned to the Redhawks of Training Squadron 21 in Kingsville, Texas, will receive her "wings of gold" on 31 July.
Cruise ship operators have been left "fuming" at official government advice telling British tourists to avoid holidaying at sea. The culture minister, Caroline Dinenage, said the UK Government was remaining cautious regarding cruises as it did not want another coronavirus outbreak at sea.
Due to an error by the organisers at the Inspiration Games, Noah Lyles, the reigning 200m world champion had in fact only run 185m when he clocked a time of 18.90 seconds. For a fleeting moment, it appeared he had beaten the 19.19sec record set by the Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt in 2009.
Sir Keir Starmer has said it was "difficult to justify" the behaviour of police officers during a "stop and search" of a Team GB sprinter and her partner. The Labour leader said the video of the incident, involving athlete Bianca Williams and her partner would make for "uncomfortable" viewing for senior Metropolitan Police officers.
It appears that one of our best-loved and most versatile actors has been crafting to her heart's content during lockdown. Initially, Alison Steadman, who is 73 and in the higher risk category for Covid-19, was dreading the enforced isolation. But she admits that her hobby, which includes making puppets, has helped her through the difficult days.
A container shipping operator has overtaken several coal plants and an airline in a list of the EU's top carbon emitters, according to official data. The Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has moved to seventh place with 10.72 metric tonnes (Mt) CO2 emissions in 2019 making it a larger emitter of carbon than Ryanair with 10.53 Mt CO2 emissions.
Sexual activity at a beauty spot in Gloucestershire has risen during lockdown, according to residents. Barrow Wake, near Birdlip, which is a known "dogging site", is said to have seen a surge in people visiting for al fresco assignations, with lunchtime and after work being the busiest times.
A £64 million funding package to protect the Amazon and tropical rainforests in Colombia was announced to mark World Environment Day. COP26 President and Business Secretary, Alok Sharma, said the money was part of the UK's commitment to fight global climate change.
An Iron Age funeral site found along the HS2 route could shed "tantalising" light on how the dead were treated 2,000 years ago. Several dozen sites, placed on funeral pyres, indicate a settlement existed on the riverbank at Coleshill, near Solihull in North Warwickshire.
Sharing a bed with your partner could lead to better sleep, improved mental health and enhanced memory and problem solving, a study shows. Researchers analysed the sleep patterns of 12 young, healthy, heterosexual couples who spent four nights in a sleep laboratory.
Mary, who celebrated her 102nd birthday at the end of February, tested positive for the virus at the end of May. It was a worrying time for family and friends given Mary's age, but now five weeks later she is well and truly back on the road to rude health.
Gary Kemp has hinted that Spandau Ballet could reform and tour again. The guitarist and principal songwriter for the group said he was open to the band getting back together but it all depended on whether singer, Tony Hadley, would join them. "Will the Spands ride again?
The fate of a number of statues across the UK hang in the balance as councils continue to audit their monuments. Cheltenham Council said on Monday its statues and monuments are under review in light of the Black Lives Matters Campaign.
Wealthy Zimbabweans who cannot explain the origins of their assets could have them seized even if individuals are cleared of a corruption allegation in the courts. With the country facing its worst economic crisis in a decade, this new move comes as public anger grows over poor services and corruption.
The fate of a number of statues across the UK hang in the balance as councils continue to audit their monuments. Cheltenham Council said on Monday its statues and monuments are under review in light of the Black Lives Matters Campaign.
The Foreign & Commonwealth (FCO) currently advises against all non-essential overseas travel for British nationals, but this advice is under constant review. People with travel plans in the immediate future are advised by the FCO to contact their airline, travel company, cruise line, or other transport and accommodation providers as well as their insurance provider for an update.
This was the introduction from LBC's Iain Dale's to the caller who spoke about the Black Lives Matter protests in Hyde Park. The conversation then broadened out to the "lack of diversity" at among other places, the radio station. While the pair disagreed on occasion, the exchange between them was good-natured and made for compelling radio.
A former US federal prosecutor has warned that the "odds are against" successfully convicting a police officer for murder and that prosecutors can come up against a "blue wall of silence".
In brief Labour could rustle up a government with a rainbow coalition of SNP, Plaid, Lib Dem and Green MPs Both major parties could be vulnerable to clear Brexit messaging on either side of the divide Polls expert Professor John Curtice has warned that holding a general election now would lead to a hung parliament and even greater political chaos.
In brief Several regiments are more than 30% below target number of personnel Outsourcing company Capita should be sacked, say MP Mark Francois British frontline army units have suffered a recruitment slump of up to a third, casting doubt over their capability for action.
The man who performed the first bungee jump 40 years ago was on solid ground when he marked the anniversary of his momentous leap. David Kirke, 75, yesterday returned to the scene of the jump, Bristol's Clifton Suspension Bridge, for the occasion.
Sir Elton John has urged people to boycott Brunei-owned luxury hotels over the sultanate's new death penalty for gay sex and adultery. Read more: Brunei to impose death by stoning for gay sex and adultery It comes after actor George Clooney called a boycott last week listing on hotels in the United States, Britain, France and Italy, which includes London's Dorchester Hotel, 45 Park Lane and The Beverly Hills Hotel.
In brief Two experts say the Queen could be drawn into the Brexit row They blame firmly at the feet of 'rogue Speaker' John Bercow The Queen is reported to be worried she could be dragged into the Brexit row and, in doing so, sparking a constitutional crisis.
Claims that there were 1 million people on the People's Vote march at the weekend have been dismissed by experts who argue the figure was closer to 400,000. Organisers of the anti-Brexit protest last Saturday said they estimated the size of the crowd using information from staff and volunteers as well as examining aerial pictures from helicopters.
The anti-Brexit petition which is calling for Article 50 to be revoked and for the UK to stay in the EU has garnered more than 5.6 million signatures. Parliament will consider any parliamentary petition that reaches 100,000 signatures or more for debate. Those parliamentary petitions that reach 10,000 signatures or more will receive a response from the government.
A pigeon nicknamed "Lewis Hamilton" for his speedy soaring has been sold for a record 1.25m (£1.1 million) in a frenzied bidding war. Armando had been the best in Europe in 2018 and caught the attention of a growing band of wealthy Chinese bird-racing enthusiasts.
High performing comprehensive schools in England, Scotland and Wales take only half the number of poorer pupils as the average school, according to new research by the Sutton Trust. Analysing the number of children eligible for Free School Meals attending top state schools, researchers from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found that in all three nations the best state schools' intakes are markedly different from the average.
Tiddles used to be a perfectly proper name for a cat. But in these days dominated by the imminent departure of the UK from the EU not even felines can escape unscathed. It has emerged that France's Europe Minister, Nathalie Loiseau has brought her work home with her and named her moggie "Brexit".
Teenage recruits are vulnerable to self-harm and alcohol misuse Experts have warned of the damaging effects on teens serving in the UK army and have called for recruiting children to stop, according to a medical journal editorial. One in four soldiers in the UK army is under 18.
The Labour split has been met with a muted response by some members of the Conservative party with many expressing respect for the seven MPs who quit the party on Monday.
Occasionally it has been brilliant but it has also been deeply frustrating. My father, John, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease 17 years ago when he was 55. He attended Netherwood, a fantastic specialist dementia day centre in north-west London. It gave him freedom and gave us, the family, a break from the rigours of looking after someone with dementia.
AS SOON as the music begins a chorus of sensibly shod feet begin to tap perfectly in time. A smile appears on one woman's face, another man gently nods his head to the beat, content and relaxed. "One teatime in September. . ."
With a high-profile job in the City as well as a large family, Nicola Horlick was hailed as proof that women could 'have it all'. Here she tells JANE CLINTON who's to blame for the recession and explains why, in these lean times, we have to realise what is truly important.
As Pentameters prepares to celebrate 50 years of putting on poetry, music and theatre, Jane Clinton talks to its founder, Léonie Scott-Matthews