Why did you choose to become a freelancer?
Freedom to choose my subjects, freedom to move around, freedom to work for a range of magazines and newspapers, and most of all, freedom to sit in various coffee shops with a laptop, a beard and a series of outrageous hats (if I so wish).
If you trained, where? If not, how did you become a freelancer?
All my training was on the job. I spent five years as a copywriter, which schooled me in things like defining and non-defining relative clauses. Then I started writing for a magazine, where my first interviewee was Sir Alex Ferguson. By the time I became a freelancer, I had all the basics, apart from proficiency in chasing editors for payment, which I'm still working on.
Do you specialise in any particular field and what areas do you write about?
I write mainly about food and travel, but have also written about sport (from football to cage fighting), music, film, TV and culture. Recently I've been travelling a lot in the Middle East, eating the food and hassling the restaurateurs (I'm the academy chairman for the Middle East region of the San Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants awards). I'm currently trying to write a book about food in the Middle East, if there are any publishers reading..
Which publications have you been published in?
The Sunday Times, CNN Traveller, Esquire Middle East, What's On, Time Out Dubai, The National, Gulf News, Sabotage Times, Destinations Of The World News, Priority magazine for Singapore Airlines, Oryx Magazine for Qatar Airways, Dorling Kindersley books, and quite a few more.
Which articles, in which publication, are you the most proud of?
All of the ones that didn't fall foul of an editor’s flashing blade. And one where I interviewed Lemmy from Motörhead because, well, I interviewed Lemmy from Motörhead.
What are the best and worst aspects of freelancing?
Travelling and eating is great. Being able to write about Syrian kebabs, while sitting in a vest and pants, is also tremendous. The worst is picking up a publication to read your work, and seeing that an editor has set about it with a butcher's saw. Chasing up payments is pretty rotten too.
Do you have any interesting anecdotes in relation to your experience as a freelancer?
I went to cover a food festival in a little Lebanese town called Marjeyoun, near the Israeli border. The two sides had been exchanging fire for days over the removal of a strategically placed tree. I was worried about incoming rockets and being kidnapped by Hezbollah. When I got there the town had been taken over by a motorcycle gang on Harley Davidsons. They were politely eating Arabic sweets and pastries. I ended up getting kidnapped, not by Hezbollah, but by a little old lady who insisted I go up to her balcony for coffee. We drank and watched the Harleys roll out of town.
Senior Desk Editor - International News Desk
