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From the tall buildings in W5 you can see as far east as Canary Wharf, as far north as Wembley and as far south as the Surrey Hills however I’m going to focus on news and features from Ealing, Hounslow and Richmond.
Ealing has a population of 370,000, Hounslow, 288,000 and Richmond 195,000. That’s a massive population which is rarely offered any in-depth journalism unless it comes into the focus of national media.
I feel I’m disconnected from much of what is going on around me. What happens to the rubbish and recycling we leave out each week? What takes place in the offices, factories and film studios that dot the area? How are the homeless helped off the streets? Is there world-beating innovation taking place in the area? I want to answer these questions and more to inform readers what is going on on their doorstep.
There are many local news websites but while I will look for inspiration from them I will not try to emulate them. I’ll be looking for stories where I can add depth and new dimensions in the same way that Sunday newspaper journalists would try to develop stories that had been covered by daily newspapers.
My journey as a journalist started in Dundee and has taken me to Edinburgh, London, the Balkans, Pakistan, New York for 9/11 and the Middle East. I have written for most of the tabloids, the Scotsman, the Times, the Guardian and Observer, Newsday in New York and Time magazine. My stories have also appeared in the New Jersey Star and Ledger, the Toronto Star and the Economist.
Now I’m firmly rooted in South Ealing and I’m inspired by these lines from George Bernard Shaw’s play John Bull’s Other Island.
“When I went to those great cities I saw wonders I had never seen in Ireland. But when I came back to Ireland I found all the wonders there waiting for me. You see they had been there all the time; but my eyes had never been opened to them. I did not know what my own house was like, because I had never been outside it.”
I look forward to sharing the wonders and challenges that exist on our doorstep but are rarely examined.
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