What was your first job as a journalist?
Potted film critic for British Vogue.
Have you ever used a typewriter?
I learned to type in a classroom full of typewriters in Mayfair.
How is social media changing news?
People are losing the habit of reading long pieces that go on for pages and pages and are meticulously researched.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Walter Burns.
What does it mean to be a journalist?
It opens some exclusive doors.
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
Please don't start with "Hope you are you well?"
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
MacBook Air: Chrome, Word, Photoshop, Bridge.
What's your favorite social network?
Instagram.
Who do you wish followed you?
Michelle Obama.
Why did you become a journalist?
I adored my mother's glossy magazines as a child, also the weeklies; we always had the Observer as well as the Sunday Times.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
Illustration.
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
A piece for Country Living about a shepherdess who makes 'sheepskins' without killing sheep (they are felted).
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
This applies to marketing people too: avoid the word 'stunning' where possible.
When's the best time to pitch you?
Any time.
What's the best pitch you ever got?
Every commission that involves talking to fascinating people.
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
Being asked to write about the merits of plastic topiary.
What's your favorite drink?
Whiskey sour.
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
The garden, with or without our puppy.
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
The Observer or the Guardian.
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
That garden writing has to be dull, with phrases like 'seasonal interest'.
