About me
I am a freelance journalist and to have published eight books, including Hype! (1990), a comic novel about the music industry; The Stars Over Paxos (1995), a travelogue about life on a small Greek island; Queer Noises (1996), a survey of lesbian and gay contributions to twentieth century music; The Rough Guide to Corfu and the Ionian Islands (1997); Essential Gaudí (2001), a study of the work of the Catalan architect; and the Thomas Cook Travellers Guide to Seville & Andalucía (2003). I am also a contributor to Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Guide to Mallorca and the Balearics (2004) and the Eyewitness Guide to Seville and Andalusia (2007). My Andalucía: A Cultural History appeared in 2008 from Signal Books, published by the Oxford University Press in Europe and the USA. My next project is a book about Todd Haynes’ film Far from Heaven for the British Film Institute’s BFI Modern Classics series due in 2011, followed by a cultural history of Athens for Signal Books, also due in 2011. Other mischief awaits, and may involve mayhem with sound sculptures up in the hills of a small Greek island…
My background is in arts journalism (I was music, then books, then senior editor, of Time Out magazine in London for the best part of a decade before going freelance to concentrate on book projects). I have worked as a contributor and sub-editor on most Fleet Street newspapers, including The Times, Sunday Times, Independent, Independent on Sunday, Observer, Daily Mirror and Daily Express, and magazines including Elle and the Literary Review. I have specialised in travel journalism for the past decade, as a contributor to Condé Nast Traveller (UK) and elsewhere.
I have also edited books on popular culture, music, film, television and entertainment for various British and overseas publishers.