DWPub JournAlert

The Focus is a chance for freelance journalist members of www.journalistdirectory.com to tell colleagues, editors and PRs (in our separate newsletter from www.featuresexec.com) a bit more about their work and experience. If you’d like to take part email us on news@dwpub.com.

First we speak to Alice Griffin (pictured, right)

What do you write about? Mostly I write about travel with a focus on travelling with children and as a family. I also occasionally write articles about green/eco-living and women’s interest.

Where are we likely to see your work? I have written features for and appeared in various print publications: Spain magazine, Living Abroad, Real Travel, Babyworld, Dogs Today (travelling with my pooch!) and Smallholder.

My first book ‘Tales from a Travelling Mum’ was published in November 2009 and I am currently working on my second book ‘Tales of Inspirational Travellers’, due to be published November 2010.

I also write the bimonthly Travel Sense column for Mumsense, a high-end family lifestyle magazine and the Woman Zone column for the Spanish Sun Newspaper, in which I also review health and beauty products.

What’s the most memorable work you’ve done? Working for a UK-based tourist-guide in my twenties. I was able to travel the world on my own and write about it, which for me is kind of heaven! It is so memorable because not only did it indulge my passion for travel, but it strengthened me as a person. After some crazy experiences such as driving across the Canadian Rockies in the depths of winter and finding my way around Bangkok in a car, I felt ready for anything that life could throw at me!

What interview or feature would you love the chance to do? Anything that would provide an adventurous and exciting travel experience/education for all the family in a really amazing part of the world.

Dogsledding in Alaska, going on safari in Africa, family backpacking and visiting yoga retreats in India – these are all features/interviews I would love to do!

I’m a huge advocate for exposing children to many cultures and activities from a young age rather than thinking you can’t take them with you, so anything that challenges us as parents, but that also exposes children to this great and diverse world, is appealing.

How would you pay the bills if you weren’t a journalist? I would be a yoga teacher or work with horses – both of which I still hope to do alongside being a writer!

If we gave you £1,000, how would you spend it? My family and I took a trip to Bangkok in February, so it would be flights to India where we would then head to a yoga retreat for the whole family… the way my daughter is practicing her down dogs and cobras of late, I think she would enjoy this and then I could write a feature ‘Yoga Retreats… through the eyes of an almost-three-year-old!’

What books are on your bedside table, magazines in your bag, or blogs on your screen? On my bedside table right now:

The Devil and Miss Prym – Paulo Coelho, The Almost Moon – Alice Sebold, The Kindness of Strangers – Kate Adie

Nothing book-related in my bag apart from a notepad and pen to jot down general observations and the early notes of my new book, but I’ve just ordered Hitching Rides with Buddha by Will Ferguson. I have a soft spot for Japan as it was one of my first big trips and I’m looking forward to reading this book.

Blogs on my screen – too many to mention, but anything to do with travel, living abroad, sustainable living, crafty pastimes and writing. A couple of favourites are:

http://www.ahousecallednut.com/a_house_called_nut/

http://lavenderlimes.blogspot.com/

http://www.ottsworld.com/

Get in touch with Alice Griffin via the Freelance Journalist Directory: http://www.journalistdirectory.com/journalist/mTXT/Alice-Griffin/

Our second interview today is with Harriet Griffey

What do you write about? I started off as a journalist doing a lot of health writing because I am also a qualified nurse, but now I write more general features, human interest stories and interviews. Every now and then I take myself off – some years ago I spent two weeks with the Phelophepa Healthcare Train in South Africa, which yielded lots of great stories – which replenishes the batteries.

Where are we likely to see your work? I’ve written for all the main UK national newspapers over time, the Guardian, Independent, Telegraph, FT, Sunday Times, and the Mail on Sunday – but I also write non-fiction books. My latest book ‘The Art of Concentration’ is published by Rodale in April. I also do a fair amount of corporate work, and that tends to be more specialised.

What’s the most memorable work you’ve done? I love interviewing people, whoever they are and whatever they do, and the most memorable was probably going to Paris to interview Ray Charles for the Guardian and the BBC World Service. I spent three days hanging out with his band and the Raylettes before I interviewed him at the Ritz. But I’ve also interviewed a lot of people who are equally memorable for different reasons – the children representing the charity www.changingfaces.org.uk for example, and going to India to interview the country’s first environment minister, Maneka Gandhi. Finding out that Bill Wyman used to hang out with the artist Marc Chagall in France was pretty memorable, too! I remember Lynn Barber telling me that you must always ask the obvious questions and not fear looking stupid, otherwise you just don’t get the really interesting nuggets of information that make a great piece.

What interview or feature would you love the chance to do? I like to see what happens behind the scenes because you always get an interesting insight into what makes people tick and what makes things happen – so doing a feature behind the scenes at the Oscars Award ceremony would be fun.

How would you pay the bills if you weren’t a journalist? That’s a tricky one because I can’t think of a better job! I coach teenagers through a charity www.youthatrisk.org.uk so maybe if I wasn’t a journalist and writer, I would develop that side of my work more.

If we gave you £1,000, how would you spend it? Travel. I have permanently itchy feet! I’m going to India next month…

What books are on your bedside table, magazines in your bag, or blogs on your screen? I often go to bed with the Guardian’s G2 section to catch up and do the (quick) crossword, but currently I’m reading Barbara Ehrenreich’s book ‘Smile or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America and the World’, which I’m finding really interesting, and Lois Walden’s excellent first novel ‘One More Stop’. I used to be addicted to magazines but am in recovery now (!) and try to limit myself to holidays and train trips… the weekend newspaper magazines are great, though! The blog that’s mostly on my screen at the moment is my own – http://theartofconcentration.blogspot.com/ – purely because I’m doing one for my new book, and writing it is a great way of thinking through new ideas on the art of concentration.

Get in touch with Harriet Griffey via the Freelance Journalist Directory: http://www.journalistdirectory.com/journalist/XLmLz/Harriet-Griffey/