Abigail Flanagan

Consumer journalist. Travel writer. Copy & content writer.

United Kingdom

I write about all sorts, from travel, wildlife, and well-being to relationships, lifestyle, and parenting. I take photos, too.

Recent travel commissions include The Telegraph, The Times, Cruise & Travel, Expert Africa, Experience Travel Group, and Jon Baines Tours. I've also been creating SEO content for private clients on topics as diverse as sustainable travel, contemporary art, partnership disputes, equality in the workplace, menopausal health, and astonishingly beautiful jewellery. So, I know my Boivin from my Bulgari and the differences between Hambling, Hirst and HRT.

Other clients include The Guardian, Country Living, Sainsbury's Magazine, Family Traveller, Encounters Magazine, South China Morning Post, Janus Arts & Jewels, Hilton, You Magazine, Mumsnet.com - the UK's leading parenting website, takethefamily.com - the UK's leading family travel website, britainsfinest.co.uk and John Brown Publishing. Commissions include features, digital content, programme development, scriptwriting, and PR projects.

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Portfolio

FEATURES

The Telegraph
11/13/2022
How to do Kenya differently in 2023

With living museums, private galleries and art classes, this is the year to discover the country's creative safari rather than the Big Five.

The Times
09/20/2021
Chillderness: Wales's futuristic off-grid glampsite

It's midnight in the International Dark Sky Park of the Cambrian Mountains. I'm with my husband, Paul, in a precision-engineered orb on the edge of a wooded hill. Rain is hammering out a two-tone sonata on the roof and metal stairway. It's so dark I can't even see Paul beside me.

The Telegraph
Pimalai Resort & Spa

Backed by limestone mountains, overlooking the Andaman Sea. Complimentary transfers from Krabi airport take two hours, with the speedboat leg - all sea spray and limestone karsts - an early wow-factor fix. Pimalai borders most of Kantiang's pristine beach, so it feels wonderfully private, but a smattering of laid-back shops, bars and restaurants is a few minutes' shuffle down the shore.

The Telegraph
06/08/2020
My father's suicide made me change career at 26, to help other men

My son, Leo, was 12-weeks old when the call came telling me my dad, Martin, had killed himself - and, with that, I flipped from "new mum, total euphoria" into absolute despair. Foolishly, the only coping mechanism I could think of was to end my maternity leave and throw myself back into my job as business development manager for a leading hospitality group.

the Guardian
04/06/2012
Bring on the heavies: horse riding in the Lake District

It's late afternoon and the Irish Sea is creeping up Cumbria's Silecroft beach as anglers prepare lines for an evening spent in search of bass and flatties. The sand and shingle shoreline extends as far as the eye can see. Except suddenly I can't - see, that is - for great clods of flying sand.

The Telegraph
The Tubkaak Krabi Boutique Resort

Bar a few neighbouring resorts, there's little but palm-fringed, powder-soft, horde-free sands here. So far, so terrifically tropical, but those 13 limestone karsts - scattered like a giant's discarded game of knucklebones - change everything. The Koh Hong archipelago acts as one vast, phenomenally pretty speedbump, transforming the cobalt bay into a barely pulsating pond.

the Guardian
06/07/2014
We sent Mum's ashes up in a firework

"I think I've just heard your mum on the radio: Judi from Barnes ... that's right, isn't it? Well, she said that when she dies she wants her ashes scattered from a firework!" A conversation I didn't expect to have at the school gates.

The Telegraph
Koh Jum Beach Villas

Koh Jum is only an hour's transfer from Krabi Airport yet feels like a Thailand that time forgot - home to miles of wild shoreline and just three tiny, Muslim fishing villages. Exploring from the resort's Andaman Beach location is easy.

Sainsbury's Magazine
10/01/2017
New York State of Mind

When you need to celebrate, there's only one place to go: Abigail Flanagan heads to the Big Apple to welcome her fifties in style.

Sainsbury's Magazine
01/08/2013
A walk on the wild side

Wading through croc-infested waters, trekking across harsh terrain and sleeping under the stars; the road through Western Australia's Kimberley may be rocky, but it's also incredibly beautiful, discovers Abigail Flanagan

the Guardian
04/10/2015
David Weir: My family values

It took a couple of weeks for my parents to find out I was disabled. Everyone assumed I would be in plaster for three or four months to correct the position of my feet. I might walk with a bit of a limp, but I might not.

FAMILY TRAVELLER
01/09/2017
Easy as one, two, Sri?

The perfect trip for parents and easily bored teens: does such a thing exist? Abigail Flanagan heads for an adventure-packed tour of Sri Lanka to find out…

Sainsbury's Magazine
04/01/2010
Happy Families: Safari in South Africa

Looking for a once-in-a-lifetime experience to share with her son Joe, Abigail Flanagan tried out a conservation trip in the African bush.

the Guardian
06/01/2012
Tapas in Barcelona: an El Bulli experience for all the family

The wife's always the last to know. "I've got Tickets!" announced my husband, Paul. "Tickets? For what?" "No, not tickets - Tickets, Ferran and Albert Adrià's Barcelona tapas bar. It's supremely hard to get into. You have to book online months in advance.

the Guardian
11/26/2011
Henry Winkler: My family values

As a child, before I went to bed, I thought every night that I would be a different parent from my parents. I don't think I have ever laid a hand on my children - but as a kid I had hands, a hairbrush ... I remember having breakfast.

the Guardian
11/04/2011
Safari in Kenya - and see Kilimanjaro

"Look,over there - giraffes." "No, that's a dead tree." "Ooh ... elephants." "No, they're termite mounds." To his credit, Joel Cheruiyot, Tortilis Camp's deputy chief guide, resisted the temptation to laugh. The vast plains of Amboseli, which unfurl to the horizon and to Mount Kilimanjaro 20 miles south, conspire with the uneducated eye to distort and deceive.

the Guardian
06/17/2011
Dispatches from the home front

His father was a soldier, his son is a cameraman in conflict zones and he rescued a little girl from war-torn Sarajevo - later adopting her. Veteran correspondent Michael Nicholson explains how war has shaped three generations of his family

the Guardian
10/01/2010
Cornwall's not just for summer

"Fer-lip ..." My 10-year-old son Joe is seldom rendered monosyllabic with awe, but staring into the abyss that is Cornwall's Adrenalin Quarry, I could only concur. "Flip, indeed." Fifty metres below us was half a kilometre of bright blue lake - a flooded quarry near Liskeard; its surface, like my knees, quivered like jelly.

Takethefamily
A Family Glamping Holiday at Cuckoo Down Farm Yurts, Devon

From the outside, our yurt looks as traditionally nomadic as they come. But peeling open the doorway, it's like we've been magicked into a land of gingerbread houses and sneaked porridge. Floral bunting, twinkling fairylights, a big iron bed with delicate toile linen and a woodburning stove to keep our toes cosy?

Takethefamily
An Insiders' Guide to Mallorca with Kids

With family and friends on this lovely Mediterranean island, summer means Mallorca for me and my son Joe. Here are some of our tips for making the most of your family holiday there. If you're holidaying in the south-west and want to experience beach life Mallorquin-style, head to the little coves of Illetas.

the Guardian
10/23/2009
The French farm stay with something for everyone

The realisation that this was a holiday unlike any we'd ever had dawned early. First came a bell, its incessant ring shattering our sleep. Then a bellow: "Animal feeding time! Hurry up, Joe!" "What the . . .?" groaned my husband, Paul, as I peeked between heavy toile curtains.

the Guardian
03/08/2008
The Family Challenge

If something excites me I like to feel my loved ones share that excitement. And when they don't, I try to make them. Bombing up the M1 to the falconry centre, I had that same nervy feeling you get before a holiday. My husband and son, however, seemed somewhat comatose ...

the Guardian
04/26/2008
The Family Challenge: Abigail Flanagan and family try indoor skydiving

Man has always wanted to fly and the Flanagan males are no different. But while there've been times in our relationship when I'd have happily shoved my husband out of a plane, the idea of freefalling 4,000m feet with my eight-year-old son, Joe, strapped to my back took the concept of continuum parenting to, I felt, an unacceptable level.

CONTENT & COPYWRITING

Janus Arts & Janus Jewels
07/21/2022
Janus Arts' Shortcut Guide to High-end Art

Learn about buying & collecting high-end art - from old masters to emerging artists - with Janus Art's quick dip into art for pleasure & investment.

Janus Arts & Janus Jewels
12/01/2020
Discover Maggi Hambling

To some, she’s a National Treasure; to others, a complete conundrum. With Maggi Hambling, CBE, there’s no halfway house.

Janus Arts & Janus Jewels
Jewellery and Art: Timeless Works of Distinction - Janus Arts

A new website and regular content for Janus Arts and Jewels: dealers in specialist works of timeless distinction. Chosen with the collector in mind, each piece the finest example of its type. An ongoing project, involving TOV and SEO-content for landing pages, product pages and insider blogs. A few months on from launch, the site is already ranking highly on Google.