I am an award-winning British journalist and novelist. As Associate Global Editor for the Daily Mail Online, I cover mainly foreign stories. In addition, I’m a commentator for Sky News and a broadcaster for BBC Radio 4 and the World Service.
I’ve written four novels, including the bestselling The English German Girl. Set in WWII, it tells the story of the Kindertransport. It won the Fiction Uncovered prize and received widespread critical praise, with the late Sir Martin Gilbert calling it ‘a powerful evocation of a bygone era’. I am currently working on its sequel.
As a journalist, I have reported from all over Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. I have been on the ground for major breaking news stories such as the Bataclan attack in Paris, the fall of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, the collapse of Venezuela and the terror attacks in Sri Lanka. I’ve written on the war in Syria, the European migration crisis and the rise of the far-Right in Scandinavia. I’ve also conducted many foreign investigations, such as tracking down Adolph Eichmann’s Nazi sons in Argentina and exposing the ‘essay factories’ of Nairobi.
I’ve presented radio documentaries for the BBC on a variety of subjects including private detectives and Interpol, as well as television for BBC Breakfast. In addition, I appear regularly on for BBC Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent.
I have also broken a number of political stories. In 2015, I was the first journalist to expose Jeremy Corbyn’s links to various extremists and conspiracy theorists, including Holocaust denier Paul Eisen. In August 2018, I revealed his comments that British Zionists ‘don’t understand English irony’, which dominated national headlines.
Formerly I was a Features Writer at the Sunday Telegraph, where I wrote Meet the Settlers, a longform multimedia story that won and was shortlisted for a range of awards, including the British Press Award.
As a freelancer, I worked for the Times, the Independent, the Guardian and others as well as international outlets including CNN, POLITICO, Newsweek and La Repubblica.
I hold a First in English from St Peter’s College, Oxford, and a PhD in Creative Writing from UEA, and have lectured at Oxford and elsewhere. I’m a judge for the Reuters News Fixer Award, and a Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University.