I am an award-winning British journalist and novelist. As Associate Global Editor for the Daily Mail Online, I cover foreign stories and some home news and politics. In addition I’m a commentator for Sky News, a writer for the Spectator and a broadcaster for BBC Radio 4.
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.
Many of my biggest stories have been related to Labour anti-Semitism. In 2015, when Corbyn was poised to become leader, I published a series of articles exposing his links to various extremists and conspiracy theorists, including Holocaust denier Paul Eisen.
The story snowballed, and over the next few years I exposed many anti-Semitic people and events with which he was connected. In August 2018, I revealed his comments that British Zionists ‘don’t understand English irony’. It dominated the political news agenda and was seen by many as a ‘tipping point’ in the debate.
In terms of foreign reporting, I recently disclosed a ‘lost tribe’ of Britons living on a remote island off Honduras. I’ve reported from northern Nigeria on the Boko Haram insurgency; from Ramallah during the clashes following Trump’s Jerusalem announcement (watch my Facebook Live from 17mins 22secs); from Harare during the fall of Robert Mugabe; from Barcelona during the Catalan referendum; and from the Caribbean islands that were flattened by hurricanes Irma and Maria (where I used a drone to capture the first pictures of Trump’s damaged beachfront mansion).
I’ve also reported from Caracas (‘the most dangerous city in the world’), covered the migrant crisis from Greece, France, Macedonia and Italy, been on the ground for all the recent European terror attacks, and documented the rise of the far-Right in Finland, Germany and elsewhere.
I’ve presented radio documentaries for the BBC on a variety of subjects including private detectives and Interpol, as well as a television package for BBC Breakfast. In addition, I appear regularly on for BBC Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent. (Scroll down to view a select portfolio.)
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.