About Me

I'm editor of the Coronation Street Blog, a fan website which attracts almost half a million (yes, that's half a million!) Corrie fans per month. Find out what makes the website so special with celebrity bloggers, exclusive interviews and competitions - read all about it here.

The Coronation Street Blog has been praised by The Guardian as Marvellous and twice by the Manchester Evening News as Excellent and Essential reading for Street fans. 

I also own the original, first ever Coronation Street fan website www.corrie.net

I am the author of A Perfect Duet - the diary of Roy and Hayley Cropper, an unofficial Coronation Street companion book. The book was released in May 2014 by FBS Publishing and has a foreword by actress Julie Hesmondhalgh, who played Hayley Cropper in Coronation Street.

I am also the author of Norman Bates with a Briefcase - the Richard Hillman Story, an unofficial Coronation Street companion book. The book has a foreword by actor Brian Capron, who played Richard Hillman in Coronation Street, and was released in December 2014 for Kindle.  Find out more here.

July 2013: I interviewed the woman who dressed the Coronation Street icons. Read it here.

In 2010 I was commissioned to write a number of articles for Coronation Street's official 50th anniversary magazine.  I also used to write freelance for the now defunct Coronation Street magazine. And I also wrote freelance for the official Coronation Street website at itv.com.


I also write a Coronation Street monthly update for The Union Jack, the only national USA newspaper for British ex-pats.

In 2008 I was commissioned to update Coronation Street: The Complete Saga, a novel by Katherine Hardy, with major events from the cobbles from 2003 to 2008, a five year update.

The book is available via Amazon here. My name appears on an imprint page inside the book.

In 2010 I was commissioned to update the Coronation Street Saga novel once again for Corrie's 50th anniversary.

The book is available via Amazon here.

I graduated as a (very) mature student in 2001 with First Class (Hons) and a prize for excellence in communication after studying Journalism at the University of Sunderland. During my degree, my personal website, a spoof tabloid paper, was shortlisted for The Guardian Student Media Awards.

While I was studying my journalism degree, I was invited to work in the Coronation Street press office where I worked on the ITV book: Access All Areas: Behind the Scenes at Coronation Street.

After graduation I carried on my studies at postgrad level, and in one essay discussing representation of femininity in Coronation Street. If you're looking for academic sources of info, then a good place to start is the list I've compiled for Corrie net

NEW FOR KINDLE!
My Corrie (unofficial) weekly updates from 1995 - 20 years in 20 e-books
All the wit and warmth of Weatherfield, none of the waffle
Available from amazon.co.uk and amazon.com

I've also e-published a book of rather wonderfully daft poems too.
Find out more here.

And my novel Triple Whammy has now moved from the back of my knicker drawer to Amazon.
Find out more here.



Follow me on twitter
 
See my photos on flickr
 

Corrie paste and copy blog

As regular readers will know, I blog about this, that and Coronation Street. Way back in 1995 I started writing Coronation Street Weekly Updates for a fan group online. Word of the updates spread and at its peak, there were 6,000 email subscribers to the updates until the email server collapsed under the strain of the weight and the group moved to the more stable platform of Yahoogroups. The updates featured on all of the Coronation Street fan sites and garnered some great praise over the years. They even have their own website.

Fast forward 10 years to 2005 when commercial blogging company Shiny Media launched Corrieblog. Ashley Norris, one of their three Directors at the time, asked me to be editor of this new Coronation Street blog, based on the witty, weekly Corrie updates I’d been writing for 10 years.

I edited and wrote for Shiny Media's Corrieblog for two years, all the time continuing to write my Coronation Street Weekly Updates for Corrie fan sites and the email subscription list too. I asked Shiny Media if I could bring the Coronation Street Weekly Updates to Corrieblog and they agreed. I posted the weekly update as an extra blog post in addition to the 5 blog posts a day I was paid to write.

In 2007 after two years with Corrieblog, I gave it all up. Before I left, I brought in a new writer who is still editing the site. But while I have left Corrieblog behind me, the new editor carries on writing with much the same style, tone and ideas as I always did. Flattering? Possibly.

What irks is that my Coronation Street Weekly Updates remain a part of Corrieblog long after I left blogging for cash far behind me. They’re now called Coronation Street Weekly Reviews but are written in much the same style and tone as my own. Despite repeated requests to the editor and to Shiny Media that a weekly post in this format no longer be included on a commercial site, my requests have been ignored.

When I handed over editing Corrieblog to the new person, I gave her as much help as I could over a period of weeks as she found her blogging feet, handing over pages of contacts and sources for stories, passing on emails from PRs companies and even media companies looking for a Corrie fan to interview.

However, another request last week to reconsider using the Coronation Street Weekly Updates on Corrieblog has gone unacknowledged again by both its editor and by the one remaining director of Shiny Media, Chris Price.

You're probably reading this thinking that I'm being too sensitive and over protective of these Corrie weekly updates... but after 14 years of writing them and developing the fan community around them, wouldn't you be the same?

Soap Show Podcast

The latest monthly Coronation Street podcast has gone live over at The Soap Show. It’s called Word on the Street, involves a chat about the latest storylines, reveals some upcoming spoilers and this month features a chat all about Sally Webster. You can have a listen to it here if you like.

Coronation Street podcast

I have now podded my latest cast. Yes, the monthly Coronation Street podcast has gone live over at The Soap Show. It’s called Word on the Street, involves a chat about the latest storylines and reveals some upcoming spoilers. You can have a listen to it here.

Coronation Street women

As well as being a Corrie fan and all round good blogger here at Flaming Nora, I’m also writing for women’s blog The Dolly Mix. Corrie fans might like to have a look at my latest musings on the Women of Coronation Street and why I find them compelling viewing. You can have a look at it here, but only if you’d like to.

Anti-dote to Slebs post

And now, the anti-dote to the Slebs rant I had earlier. I greatly admire Eileen Derbyshire who plays Emily Bishop in Coronation Street. She deliberately chooses to keep out of the spotlight. It's a shame other 'soap stars' aren't so very brave.

Slebs

Hugh 'n' Jemima are back together. Pete 'n' Kate are still in lurve. Why do I know this? What's it doing in my head? I deliberately avoid sleb mags and their comments on society's vermin who sluice along underneath everyday life. But slebs are in my head because I looked at an official news website today and saw a billboard for Theeny Stannart on the way home tonight. I don't want to know. I don't care. These people are nothing to me. Why should it be national news? Why inflict them on me? And on other people like me who simply don't care and who want to be left out of the pointlessness of it all?

Coronation Street podcast

The second of my Coronation Street podcasts has now gone live at The Soap Show. The Corrie podcast is called Word on the Street and you can sign up to receive the podcast automatically as it’s updated each month.

Oooh, bloggher!

It's International Women's Day on Thursday 8 March and the people I write and edit the Coronation Street blog for (Shiny Media) are launching another new blog written exclusively for and by women. It's going to be a real little gem and I'm proud and happy to be included on the writing team. Ladies (and gentlemen, for you are allowed to read it too), I give you Dollymix.

Coronation Street Podcast

Far be it for me to recommend you tune in to listen to my monthlies, but I've now podded my cast and am available for your listening pleasure each month at The Soap Show.

And if you're a fan of Coronation Street, why not have a peek at Corrieblog, which I highly recommend (and edit).