About me

I’m an author and freelance journalist. I spent 16 years covering the British government for Bloomberg, taking in five prime ministers, as many elections, and the odd referendum. Before that, I worked for the Mirror and the Financial Times. I now have a regular spot as sketchwriter for The Critic.

My career has been a mix of seriousness and satire. While I was a reporter for Bloomberg, unquestionably The Global News Organisation Least Likely To Tell A Joke, I wrote Romps, Tots & Boffins, a satirical book about the words only journalists use. I followed that up with Would They Lie to You?, about the way politicians got around reality without actually uttering untruths (it was a more innocent age).

My most recent book, Agent Jack, doesn’t have quite so many laughs, although there’s an incident with a jar of marmalade and a blueprint for a Vickers tank. Oh, and there’s a naked German in a wardrobe. 

I read Artificial Intelligence at Edinburgh University, and consequently I’m the only member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery to have built a rugby-playing robot. Here’s a list of books that made me.

I live in south east London with my wife and sons. In 2002, I helped to set up Christians in Journalism, which is now part of Christians in Media.

If you’re weirdly curious to know even more about me, here are the eulogies I wrote for two of the people who helped me become the person I am, my mother and my uncle: