About me

It’s not what a copywriter says. It’s what he whispers.

People who know me often joke that I make a living by ‘pushing words about a bit’. There’s some truth in that. The trick is knowing which words to push where, which ones to leave alone and which ones to get rid of altogether. I’ve been doing that since sick meant feeling unwell and a tablet was something you took to feel better.

The product of a conventionally dull middle-class childhood in 70s south London and a grisly public school education, I studied journalism before joining the sports desk at The News of the World. After two years of watching goalless draws on cold, rainy Monday nights, I moved to The Mirror as a music correspondent, where the company improved considerably and my LP collection grew considerably faster.

Next came central government communications, including writing speeches for Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. Journalism had taught me to find the story. Government taught me to turn negatives into positives. Both turned out to be useful preparation for life as a copywriter.

Eventually, I swapped the noise of London for country air and went freelance. Since then, I’ve helped some of the world’s most recognisable brands and businesses find the right words for just about every audience, purpose and platform imaginable.

Along the way, my copy has mobilised emergency relief, driven car sales, filled holiday resorts, soothed troubled minds, sold widgets by the million, inspired the next generation of engineers, guided patients through life-changing diagnoses, demystified complex science and sparked children’s imaginations.

It’s an eclectic list, but that’s the point. One of the pleasures of being a copywriter is never quite knowing what you’ll be writing about next. The job is to get under the skin of a subject, work out what matters and find the right way to communicate it to the people who need to know.

I work directly with businesses and organisations, as well as collaborating with design, marketing and branding agencies. I can join a project at any stage of the creative process – brainstorming concepts, interrogating a brief, writing from scratch, reshaping existing copy or stepping in when a deadline has become rather more pressing than anyone intended.

I’m a member of the creative communities at 26 and ProCopywriters, and have worked with creative and strategic agencies in the UK and internationally. As well as copywriting, I’m a published author and speechwriter, and an occasional contributor to magazines and blogs.

That’s probably enough about me. If you’d like to know more, explore my copywriting services, take a look at the sectors I write about and the clients I’ve worked with, or find out how I work.