Like many people, I was hit hard by the pandemic. 2020 started well enough, including a huge two-month project for a Commission. But just days before lockdown, I was let go from the newspaper where I’d been freelance subeditor for some years and all my commercial work got cancelled as the businesses that had booked …
One thing that has been seriously lacking in my life since lockdown is live music. At the end of a working day, or week, there is little I love more than going to a gig. Losing myself in the music is how I relax – it feeds my soul and lifts my spirits. Dancing my …
I’ve lost count of the number of work-related webinars I’ve sat through under lockdown – and beyond – but almost all been useful, inspiring or both. And then the annual conference of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading, of which I’m a member, also went online. I’d been looking forward to showing up in …
Yesterday, I published the first issue of my newsletter, From the Editor’s Desk. It was a fairly soft launch – a little chatter about the pandemic, what I’ve been doing professionally and personally under lockdown, and the importance of rainbows. I’ve been fortunate enough – so far – not to catch Covid-19, but it’s been …
A regular client I invoiced earlier today paid me within six minutes, beating my previous record with a client I worked with on a major project a few years ago. That client was paying me in weekly tranches and they processed and settled my final invoice within half an hour, then emailed me to let …
2013 was pretty interesting on the work front. Since my last round-up, I’ve been writing much more – a welcome change to the editorial work that is the bulk of my workload at present. I had a nice commission from Best, for example, to puncture the sacred cow known as Great British Bake Off. I …
The story of influential Manchester band Joy Division has been told to the point of exhaustion, right? So many books, including Hooky’s, two films in the shape of the excellent Control and Steve Coogan’s 24 Hour Party People, not to mention the myriad press coverage. But a play? Well, yes. Why not? The big question …
Unlike other cities that have enjoyed a thriving street food scene for some time, Manchester lacked one until late last year. Guerrilla Eats sought to rectify that, as I wrote last November, and so far their popup strategy is thriving. Every couple of months, the traders licence a pitch for a few days, the carts …
Crowdfunding for new projects is quite the thing these days and it makes a lot of sense to raise money from the very customers you want to buy your product because those customers already have some kind of emotional investment. Look at the success of crowdfunding the Pebble, for example. Raising capital this way has …
Back in the 80s, as an impoverished Leeds student, eating out in the city invariably meant a cheap curry at the legendary (original) Corner Café on Buslingthorpe Lane. Twenty-five years after I moved away, I still revisit friends there but know almost nothing of its current restaurant scene. As I now write a food blog, …
The Beast and the Swine – a mighty, meaty Leeds pop-up feast Read More »
