I suppose my journey goes back to 1977, when I was a babe in arms at Powderhall Stadium, where the Edinburgh Monarchs speedway team would race every Friday. My parents took me along and as a family we were hooked, my dad used to help out some of the junior riders and I would tag along with my Honda Z50R. At the age of 15 I started to race a bit myself. I wasn’t the best, but I was hooked and it led to a life in motorcycles.
After showing a (little) bit of promise, I took ill at the age of 17 and my hopes of being a professional speedway rider were effectively ended. I spent a few years in the amateur leagues until, in my early 20s, I went off to college.
I’d already been quite proactive in promoting myself. I’d set up my own website (one of the first riders to do so) and sent a news article to the local newspapers after every race (I thought I was being super clever and didn’t even know press releases were even a thing) but college fired up my love of journalism. I presented a show on college radio and gained a passion for writing, inspired by a wonderful Dundonian lecturer called Hugh Dailly. I had hoped to work in radio, but jobs were thin on the ground. I applied for a job working with a PR agency in the motorcycle industry, despite being so wet behind the ears that I didn’t even know what a PR agency actually was…
That was a great time in my life, producing content for a number of written corporate magazines (this was in the days before social media) and after an ill-judged attempt to become a proper journalist I went to live in Amsterdam for five years, working as the press officer for Yamaha in world superbikes.
Five more years were spent as a communications manager with Triumph Motorcycles, where my job mainly revolved around arranging press launches. I took a short career break, when my son was born, before going off to work for a big motorcycle insurance manager, again as a PR manager.
But my passion has always really been making content and, since 2017, I have been freelance. I am very fortunate to make a living creating content on motorcycling, and motorcycle sport, as well as taking on some consultancy and PR work.
I remain as passionate about motorcycle sport as ever and enjoy imparting my knowledge to the audience. Even though the media we work with evolves over the years, I hope to continue to do so for a long time yet.