My full time job is with the NHS but aside from that I am a writer, aviation journalist, podcaster, editor and website developer.
With a Father who served with XV Squadron on Victor B.1s and an Uncle who worked on Meteors at Duxford, aviation was always going to play a prominent part in my upbringing and I was bitten by the bug from an early age.
I attended my first airshow more than 25 years ago and have stayed abreast of aviation current affairs ever since, all the while fuelling a prodigious appetite to read and collect books on the subject.
I joined the Air Training Corps at 14, the Chipmunk flights were unforgettable, but unfortunately never achieved my childhood dream of flying with the Royal Air Force, although I did manage a week of “work experience” at Lakenheath with the 494th TFS and its F-111s. That was fun!
My love of writing played a big part in my career in the world of public relations and that is what I did for 15 years, mainly involved with the football industry where I worked with some of the beautiful game’s biggest names and biggest events.
One World Cup and two European Championships representing T-Mobile provided some wonderful experiences and I was also the brand’s ‘man on the ground’ managing sponsorships at the likes of Aston Villa, Charlton Athletic, Birmingham City, Southampton and, most memorably, West Bromwich Albion, where I helped mastermind the famous ‘Great Escape’ campaign in 2005. A few months later this would see a group of us in London where we collected a prestigious Hollis Award for ‘Best Use of Public Relations in a Sponsorship Campaign’.
I would go from here to a high-profile player management agency where I worked with the likes of Manchester City FC, Wayne Rooney, Andy Cole, Brad Friedel and Peter Schmeichel, for whom I managed PR during his retirement from the professional game.
But the passion for aviation always remained and the last four years have seen me working as part of the GAPAN award-winning Global Aviation Resource team, providing regular content for GAR, our digital publication Global Aviation Magazine, and the likes of Jets Magazine. I am now GAR’s Editor.
I love to write about aviation and that is something I will always enjoy, although I also like to talk about it as co-presenter of the popular aerospace podcast Xtended .
