Dec 3, 2024
Karen Dobres is a writer, at the moment. She has had, and is still having, what is now officially called a ’Squiggly Career’.
She got off the career ladder when she was scouted, while still at Bristol University, for a London modelling agency. In search of a ‘proper job’ she ended up for a while at the Essex Chronicle in newspaper sales.
A close friend’s mental health challenges led her to also start volunteering at Samaritans and it was then that the next major squiggle occurred, as she decided to train as a Person-Centred Counsellor in London. Catwalk modelling recommenced, to pay for the counselling course. As a recently qualified, and unusually young, counsellor, she was offered the chance by Polygram Records to set up their first ever in-house counselling service, for staff and stars.
Motherhood brought this phase to a close. Two children later, and after a stint as Parent Governor at their school, Karen began to write, possibly as self-therapy. Initially, this was her own fashion blog, but grew into articles for The Guardian, HuffPost and various other journals. Her modelling career was briefly resurrected for a shoot with Knitting Magazine, but the most recent squiggle saw her unexpectedly elected as a Director at her local club, Lewes FC, where she was one of the pioneers of the club’s, world-first, EqualityFC campaign, whereby the women’s team received equal resourcing to the men’s team.
Pitch Invasion is her first book and recounts her seven years there as feminist-in-residence (not official title).
Follow Karen on:
Instagram, Linked In, Twitter, Facebook or BlueSky
Dec 3, 2020
Andrew Downie is the South American sports correspondent for Reuters. He has been a foreign correspondent for three decades, living in Mexico, Haiti and Brazil and his work has appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, the Guardian and GQ, amongst many others. His first book, Doctor Socrates: Footballer, Philosopher, Legend, was the definitive biography of the late Brazilian captain and was published by Simon & Schuster in March 2017. It has sold into many territories around the world. His latest book, an oral history of the 1970 World Cup entitled The Greatest Show on Earth will be published by Polaris in September 2021. He divides his time between the UK and Brazil.
Twitter: @adowniebrazil
Apr 8, 2021
Otto Ecroyd is a serial adventure starter and first-time finisher. He has almost sailed from Norway to Scotland, driven halfway from London to Ulaanbaatar, and gotten lost, stuck and confused (in no particular order) in more countries than he’d care to remember.
Otto moved from New Zealand to London in 2010, a card-carrying member of the corporate class. The small joys of City life accumulated. Red-eye flights to Frankfurt, debates over the correct shade of blue on a chart, conference call chat about the weather. Feet began to itch. Maps were bought. Outcomes of previous adventures were disregarded. Northbound and Down (Great Northern Books, 2020) is Otto’s first book.
Dec 3, 2020
Sarah Edworthy has been a journalist since 1987 when she began reviewing fiction for The Times. After stints at the London Daily News and Harpers & Queen, she moved to the books pages of the Daily Telegraph, transferring to the sports pages in 1994. Freelance since 2005, she co-wrote The Daily Telegraph Formula One Years with Timothy Collings and El Macca: Four Years at Read Madrid with Steve McManaman. Sarah worked with Jenson Button on his bestselling Diary of the 2009 Formula One Season for Orion. She co-wrote Hostage: A Year at Gunpoint with Somali Pirates with Paul and Rachel Chandler (Mainstream, 2011). Sarah wrote The Olympic Torch Relay: Follow the Flame of London 2012 and contributed two chapters to Making History at London 2012. In that Olympic summer, she also wrote 21 Days to Glory: The Official Team Sky Book of the 2012 Tour de France (published by Harper Collins), which won Best Illustrated Book of the Year. Sarah also worked with Team Sky on a book entitled The Pain and the Glory, which was shortlisted for Illustrated Book of the Year at the British Sports Book Awards 2014. In 2014, she wrote Reeva: A Mother’s Story with June Steenkamp (Little, Brown), for which she attended the trial of Oscar Pistorius. After collaborating with rugby legend Ben Cohen on his autobiography (Carry Me Home, published by Ebury), she co-wrote This Mum Runs with Jo Pavey (Yellow Jersey), which was shortlisted for Autobiography of the Year in the 2017 Cross Book Awards. In 2020/21, she ghost-wrote A Chosen Destiny: My Story for Drew McIntyre, the first British WWE world champion, published by Ebury. She has worked as a feature writer at the Wimbledon Championships, both for the Telegraph and for wimbledon.com, since 1996; she also worked as a feature writer/reporter for rolandgarros.com from 2016-2019. More recently, Sarah worked with Sue Barker on her Sunday Times bestselling memoir and Wimbledon memories title.
Dec 3, 2020
Rod Ellingworth is currently the GB Elite Road Coach and the Director of Racing at Ineos Grenadiers. Having represented GB from 1989 until his retirement in 2001 he then founded and ran the GB Cycling Academy. Then, alongside Dave Brailsford and Fran Millar, he was instrumental in creating Team Sky in November 2008. His memoir, Project Rainbow, which he has written with William Fotheringham, was published by Faber & Faber in 2013.
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