Category: Copy Writing

Jodrell Bank: travel content for the Boundless magazine centenary issue

Boundless is the magazine for nearly a quarter of a million members of Boundless, the travel, motoring and leisure club for the public sector.

The latest issue celebrated the centenary of the organisation and I contributed some travel features, exploring sites of major events over the decades — now turned tourist attractions.

One of them was Jodrell Bank [pictured above]. Read more …

When the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik One satellite in 1957, it lit the blue touchpaper for the international space race.

This paved the way for America’s Apollo space programme and fuelled cold-war tensions between Russia and the West.

But the new world order also made an unlikely hero of a science-loving boffin at a rural Cheshire outpost.

Sir Bernard Lovell founded Jodrell Bank after WWII to pioneer work on radar.

By 1950, his team had detected the nebula in Andromeda and, as the space race intensified, Jodrell’s landmark Lovell Telescope was charged with tracking Russian cosmonauts.

Today that Grade I-listed telescope sits at the heart of the Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre, the observatory and science park set amid Cheshire farmland.

Jodrell Bank has come a long way since its post-war origins, earning a place on the UNESCO World Heritage list and hosting the annual Bluedot music festival, but it remains true to Sir Bernard’s space-race vision.

Read more at Boundless, March/April 2023.

Chester croquet: parenting blog content for Care for the Family

We had come to our local park for a hands-on class in the burgeoning sport of golf croquet, a faster, T20 cricket-style take on the traditional Association Croquet game.

The key difference is that golf croquet has one stroke per turn and, when a hoop is scored, all players move onto the next.

We arrived to find Mark Lloyd of the Chester Croquet Club [logo above] marking the flat, grass court with six cast-iron hoops and a central peg set firmly into the ground.

Mark, a regular club player with over thirty years of experience and a former world ranking of 230, had played some hard-fought matches in his time.

But was he ready for two truculent teenagers and their non-sporting father, the latter perennially the last person to be picked for any school sports team?

Handing out four coloured balls and mallets, Mark appeared to be taking it in his stride.

‘For me,’ he explained as we hit a few warmup shots and tried running a few hoops, ‘croquet is all about strategy.”

I’m always thinking three balls ahead. That’s why it’s a mix of snooker, boules, and chess.’

Read the full story via the Care for the Family Parenting blog, One dad, two teenagers and a new sport.

Content writing: a must-visit guide to Dr Who locations for Visit Wales

My latest content-writing assignment was commissioned by the agency Orchard for Visit Wales.

It was an update of shooting locations for the Dr Who TV series, timed as the producers hand over the keys of The Tardis to new doctor Ncuti Gatwa.

Here’s a sample of the copy:

The list of Doctor Who sites evolves as The Doctor regenerates through new incarnations.
While Jodie Whittaker was handing over the keys to the Tardis, South Wales provided the several backdrops to her final series, Flux.

Previously, Southerndown Beach, the shingle beach located along the Wales Coast Path in Glamorgan, had featured. It’s officially known as Dunraven Bay.

However, the wave-washed beach, popular with fossil hunters, is better to known to Whovians — that’s Dr Who fans — as Bad Wolf Bay.

It played a starring role in several episodes, the most dramatic scene the tearful farewell between Doctor David Tenant and companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) [pictured above] in Doomsday.

Read the full content: Follow the TARDIS to top Dr Who locations.

How to mark St David’s Day in Wales for food lovers and walking fans

St. David’s Day in Wales this week and I’ve got two articles out to mark Wales’ patron-saint day.

The first is a piece about foodie breaks for spring and my contribution focused on the local flavours and fairytale architecture at Portmeirion [pictured above], North Wales, one of my favourite places to spend time.

Why? Read the full story to discover why via Waitrose Food Magazine.

The second is the publication of copy-writing work for a tourism client, outlining story angles around the tenth anniversary of the Wales Coast Path — it’s coming up in May.

The 870-mile, long-distance walking trail, launched in 2012, forms the first ever continuous waking circuit of a nation.

The anniversary will be accompanied by a programme of key celebratory events, starting from March 1st, St David’s Day.

According to research by Ramblers UK, some 89 per cent of people find walking amongst nature improves health and mental wellbeing. Walking briskly for 30 minutes a day, five days a week, is one way of meeting medical experts’ recommendations for adult physical activity.

Read the full media pack here via Natural Resources Wales.