Journalism

In my 25 years as a journalist, I have been the Northern Correspondent for The Independent, the Investigations Correspondent for the i paper and was for 12 years a senior reporter at the Manchester Evening News. I am available for feature writing commissions and collaborations and also provide training and mentoring for journalism students.

research

With a PhD in urban history and as an author and genealogist, I have spent 30 years researching in archives across the North, as well as at the National Archives in London. My services include historical research for commercial projects, and TV dramas and documentaries, including having helped BBC’s The One Show research Victorian criminals before appearing on the programme.

Books

I am an author of non-fiction history books about working class lives in Northern England. My debut book Angel Meadow: Victorian Britain’s Most Savage Slum tells the story of Manchester’s most notorious district, which was described by Friedrich Engels as ‘Hell upon Earth’. The book has featured in the Amazon bestseller lists. I am now researching and writing my second book.

Projects

As a public historian I have led community building events at Manchester Histories Festival, and for the Manchester Centre for Public History and Heritage, including talks at Manchester Central Library, the Portico Library and Manchester Town Hall. My projects have included helping organise an Angel Meadow community history day. I have trained with the Oral History Society.

Tours

For a previous edition of the Manchester Histories Festival I designed and led walking tours around Angel Meadow based on my own research of the area. I now run a new series of tours in the area. I am available for private tour bookings by families, schools and universities. I also offer an archives orientation service for families from abroad making genealogy trips to the city.

Courses

I run online courses in genealogy research methods including using open-source intelligence (OSINT) to locate ancestors’ Victorian homes with maps and satellites, researching criminal ancestors using their tattoos and mapping WW1 soldiers’ journeys in France and Belgium. I have a higher education teaching qualification and am an Associate Fellow of Advance HE.

NEWSLETTERS

In 2023, I launched a newsletter, Once Upon a Time in Manchester, to tell stories about the history of the city and its people. Just a few months on, the newsletter is supported by a growing community of more than 800 subscribers and is a place where they can share their own stories and collaborate on research projects, and where I can help people overcome family history brick walls.

Genealogy

My own family history journey has taken me from Victorian Manchester slums to the west of Ireland and across the Somme battlefields in France. I am an associate of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA) and have now launched my own genealogy service, Manchester Family History, to help other families research their Mancunian roots.

PODCASTS

With two journalist friends, I am currently recording a podcast series about the history of Manchester, Everything But a Beach, which will launch in 2024. It will reveal offbeat, hidden and unreported stories from the history of the world’s first industrial city and the wider region of Greater Manchester. I also appear as a guest talking about heritage and genealogy on other podcasts.