Features
Ellie writes features for a number of publications. Some examples are below.
Time off for good behaviour
The Guardian
18 February 2008
Some employers seem decidedly more fun to work for than others. Take the National Trust, for example, which will be giving all its 4,800 staff and 49,000 volunteers the day off, paid, on February 29. The only catch is that staff are being asked to spend the time reducing their own carbon footprint in what the Trust is calling the Green Leap Day initiative. Read more...
Circle of friends
The Guardian
12 November 2007
Sometimes, it is not what you know, but who you know. A cliche, maybe, but not one without truth - which is why so many of us spend spare moments networking our way into promising professional positions. But in some industries opportunities are more difficult to access: the old boy network helping, well, old boys, rather more than women with its focus on traditionally male pursuits. Informal social events such as playing golf, watching footy in the pub, lunching at the club - they might not be activities that explicitly exclude women, but they aren't going out of their way to be female-friendly, either. Read more...
Assistance from above
The Independent
2 November 2007
If one thing is clear about aid operations involving aircraft, it is that all missions are team efforts. From mapping and planning, to flying the aircraft and moving the aid once it’s been delivered, there needs to be a huge amount of organisation, negotiation and communication. These are three qualities that David Stevens possesses in spades, honed over 23 years of working in logistics for the Royal Air Force and 16 years for British Aerospace. Now aged 65, he’s been on several emergency missions as part of an Emergency Response Unit for the British Red Cross. Read more...
Dynamic Duos
The Guardian
27 October 2007
Carey Oppenheim has had a working relationship in one form or another with Lisa Harker for years, including writing a book with her. In th summer, they were appointed co-directors at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), the progressive thinktank they have worked for in the past Together they are among the most senior jobsharers in the country, and two of th most influential women in politics. Read more...
A job that delivers
Careers Adviser
26 October 2007
If you believe what you see on television hospital dramas, then being a midwife is all about high drama on the maternity ward or delivering babies in unusual places. However, midwifery is about a lot more than that says Melanie Every, regional manager South at the Royal College of Midwives. "One of the things that is quite important to think about is that there isn't really a clear dividing line between hospital midwives and community midwives. They all work across the whole area so it's not necessarily about choosing between one or the other. Midwives provide total care sometimes even before the pregnancy begins by giving advice on giving up smoking or diet." Read more...
Unearthing the facts
Careers Adviser
26 October 2007
Whether you are advising a fair-weather gardener who enjoys pottering in their own backyard, or somebody who yearns to be in charge of a several hundred acres of gardens and meadows, there is likely to be a horticulture course to suit. Qualifications are available from BTEC and NPTC (City & Guilds) right up to postgraduate study. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) also offers four levels of qualification and the opportunity to undertake distance learning. Read more
Why candidates are more likely to find employment if they have worked before their Masters
The Independent
4 October 2007
With tough competition for graduate jobs, many people are seeking to put themselves ahead of the crowd by taking a higher degree in business. While many people with experience decide to study for an MBA, there are plenty of Masters courses in business on offer for people with experience and people with none. Read more...
In search of talent from all communities
The Independent
27 September 2007
Sectors that were once the preserve of white middle-class men now put a lot of time into attracting a diverse pool of applicants to their graduate jobs. Of course, as with anything in business, the main driver for recruiting from as diverse a group as possible is profitability and there is a clear business case in having people from ethnic minorities working for you. Read more
Gender equality in surveying: redressing the balance
The Independent
20 September 2007
In 2000 the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) set up the Raising the Ratio taskforce to help break down barriers to the recruitment and retention of women in the property profession. Its work centres around five key statements, which RICS calls their "five uncommon values". These are to represent and effectively communicate the issues and challenges faced by women throughout the property and construction profession, to attract the best candidates into the profession irrespective of gender, to create a meritocracy within the profession, to break down barriers that prevent women from entering the profession and to keep women's issues high on the agenda of people in the profession, the employers, the educationalists and the Government. Read more
Fallen women
The Guardian
13 August 2007
It should be a cause for celebration: a fantastic new job or promotion, with loads of responsibility and, hopefully, recognition attached. After years of slogging it out, you've finally got the position you've always felt you deserved. There is just one problem - the job description demands you do the impossible. Sound familiar? If you're a woman - or in fact anyone except a white, middle-aged, able-bodied man without childcare responsibilities - it may indeed ring a bell. Crashing through the glass ceiling is one thing, surviving the so-called "glass cliff", where you are promoted to a job where you are likely to fail, is quite another. Read more
The brand wagon
Guardian - Comment is Free
9 August 2007
I've been writing an article about the new Department for Children, Schools and Families and Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, which have replaced the Department for Education and Skills. I have to say I was dismayed by the way the pair are utterly different in their branding. The DCSF has a blue and red text-heavy website, the logo being the name of the department in lower case letters across two lines. (Is it just me or does anyone else wonder how grammar and spelling will be taught in schools if the department in charge of it can't even use capital letters in its own name?) The DIUS has rather fetching suffragette colours - purple, white and green - and an altogether more modern look with the logo comprising the department's name on a purple rectangle with a mix of bold and normal font. While I don't doubt these two looks will be the result of expensive branding exercises and much research into the public's perception of logos (just like the heavy metal band-esque Olympics logo for 2012, or the Tories' drastic change of colour scheme), it seems a colossal waste of money to have different branding for each department. Read more
All Talk
Guardian - Comment is Free
6 July 2007
Gordon Brown has switched weekly cabinet meetings from Thursdays to Tuesdays to allow for longer discussions. Poor cabinet ministers. The content may be more interesting than that of the average staff meeting but still, I bet they are groaning at the thought of having to spend more time sitting around discussing things in the full knowledge that, like most work meetings, they will achieve nothing. One person I know has meetings at work where everybody has to stand up for the duration. It may fall foul of disability discrimination law but it does ensure brevity, something missing from most work meetings. Read more
Reality bites
Guardian - Education
5 June 2007
"Imagine being locked up in a toilet with no way to get out." That's how Bobby Cummines, 55, describes being in a prison cell to children. "Then I tell them the guy above them has stinky feet and doesn't wash too well, and 250 other people have slept on the bed you're sleeping on." The reason Cummines believes his talks in schools work so well is that the children can be sure he knows what he's talking about. "We've got the street cred that the teacher hasn't got," he says. "They know we're talking from experience rather than guesswork." Cummines spent 13 years in prison for armed robbery and gangland shootings in the 70s and 80s. He is now chief executive of Unlock, the national association of reformed offenders. Read more
Advanced apprenticeships: laying the foundations for a career in surveying
The Independent
20 September 2007
It takes many years of academic study and professional experience to qualify as a chartered surveyor. Once qualified, however, you have the potential to work on the most exciting projects of our age, creating the next world class stadium, protecting the world's reefs, laying pipelines on the seabed, planning cities, creating man-made islands or designing computer games. But for those who don't wish to follow the traditional route of a RICS-accredited degree course as a first step, there is another way. Read more
Under your skin
Having a tattoo is no longer a great act of rebellion - so why can your employer still demand that you cover it up? Ellie Levenson investigates your appearance rights
2 July 2007
The Guardian
Eyndia Gopal has nine tattoos and one piercing. Three of his tattoos - two on his forearms and one on the back of his neck - are visible when he is dressed in his normal workday attire and his piercing, a nipple ring, can often be seen through his clothes."I've got nine tattoos, including two on my forearms. They are what I would consider nice tattoos, including my mother's name in a nice font," he says. "I also have tattoos on my shoulders, one on the back of my leg and one on my bicep. They all mean something to me. It's a timeline of different things that have happened in my life, which is why I'm proud of them all. They are not mistakes I made when I was drunk." In the past Gopal, who works for the PR firm Eulogy!, had to ensure his tattoos were not on display at work: "My previous employer insisted that my tattoos were covered up, even during the summer, but the company I now work for is happy for me to show my tattoos and meet clients with them visible, which is an extremely refreshing change." Read more
Musicians take note: FE colleges are ideal for budding artists
The Independent
28 June 2007
It's well known to their fans that the Arctic Monkeys studied music at Barnsley College, a fact that no doubt helps attract budding musicians to the college. Leeds College of Technology also celebrates a famous name, albeit an older one. They revealed a plaque this year to mark the fact that Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett wrote the hit "See Emily Play" on site after playing a gig there in April 1967. Colleges are proud of the music students they teach, both those in the limelight and those behind the scenes. But how can they be so sure that they offer one of the best environments to study the subject? Read more
Let the mind games begin
Guardian - G2
1 May 2007
Cannons Gym in the City of London is like no other gym I have ever seen, though it's fair to say I haven't been to that many. It has a cafe, several mini-gyms, a swimming pool and a sauna, and is tucked away under the railway arches at Cannon Street, so that whenever a train rattles overhead the whole building shakes slightly. It also has on offer a series of puzzles for members to tackle during their exercise, as part of their "train your brain" promotion. The idea is that the fitter you get, the brainier you get, making your time in the gym doubly useful - or, another way of looking at it, doubly gruelling. Read more
No folds barred
Guardian - G2
13 March 2007
In the Hassidic Jewish community of Stamford Hill in north London, artists are as rare as women who work outside the home. So to find a woman artist living here is particularly unusual. But then, by her own admission, Gitl Wallerstein-Braun is "unorthodox orthodox". Now aged 57, she graduated from London's Central Saint Martins last year and is already achieving international success with her photographs of her sculptures. Read more
It’s my body and I’ll roar if I want to
The Times - Body & Soul
10 March 2007
I’m lying on my back on the floor, totally naked, and a man, dressed only in his underpants, is crouching over me, paintbrush in hand.He is Rick Mills, 32, an IT consultant from Shrewsbury, and he has been painting a dragon design on my body for the past three hours. He started off wearing a feminine beautician’s outfit but, as the room became hotter and the tension increased, he gradually stripped off and now he’s down to his pants. In the first hour he turned my stomach into a dark red mouth with bright white fangs, and my breasts into terrifying eyes, my nipples the black pupils. He’s now working on my legs, painting them with scales in metallic orange, purple and yellow. “Is he turning you into a fish?” asks someone who has come by to gawp, looking at my legs being transformed into something that is, admittedly, more mermaid than mythical beast. But there’s only one response a dragon can make to such a comment. I push out my tummy so the mouth grows and let it come: “Rooooaaaaaaaaar!” Read more
Own goal
Guardian - G2
21 February 2007
Given that my friends either call themselves feminists, or are, at the very least, intelligent and independent, I have been surprised, as I have reached my late twenties, by how many have turned out to be desperate to get married. A few years ago, they were raging over the pay gap and the glass ceiling - but recently their concerns seem to have changed. Friends who once said that they didn't believe in the institution of marriage can be found with their noses in the latest bridal magazines, worrying about which colour is more appropriate for their dress: white or off-white? But beyond the exhausting details of frock, hair and makeup, marriage raises important issues for your average modern women. How should we feel about the tradition that men do the asking, for instance? What about the symbolism of the ring? Should a woman change her name? Is it appropriate to be "given away"? Of all these, the tradition that I have always thought most objectionable - but I imagined had ceased to exist - is that of fathers being asked for their daughters' hand in marriage. Read more
Sex, lies and the morning-after pill
It makes sense to keep emergency contraception in the house 'just in case'. So why do we have to be so deceitful to get it, asks Ellie Levenson
Guardian - G2
24 November 2006
One Saturday night, when her favoured method of contraception - condoms - let her down, Jennifer Clark, 34, knew that it was time to seek an emergency back-up. Due to weekend opening times and work commitments, she was unable to get to a pharmacist until Monday night, and, while she realised that this was "cutting it a bit fine to get within the 72-hour limit, I thought that I'd be OK". She bought some emergency contraception and took the pills exactly as prescribed.Four weeks later, Clark found herself, "looking rather tearfully at two blue lines on a pregnancy test". The pregnancy was very much unplanned, and she went on to have an abortion. Read more
Forty weeks to change a life
Guardian - G2
23 June 2006
Whether it's her father's nose and her mother's lips or his eyes and her cheekbones, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, 2006's most famous baby, is going to have a lovely face and, as far as silver spoons go, a lovely life. Not only has she got all the material goods that two film-star parents can provide, she has also had the best possible start in life: a mother who could afford a healthy lifestyle while pregnant. For babies born to less well-off parents, the picture is not always such a rosy one. A woman who is not employed and has no partner to support her receives only about £50 a week from the state: not a lot for someone who needs to cram as many healthy foods into her as possible, not to mention a new wardrobe. Yet a mother's health and diet before and during pregnancy are factors in determining her offspring's health, not only in childhood but - as is increasingly being acknowledged - throughout life. Read more
Whisky, miss? Go-go for it
The Times - Times 2
16 November 2005
So whisky is an old man’s drink, right? Wrong. Younger men, and women, are getting to know their malts from their blends and their Speyside from their Islay. Dominic Roskrow, editor of Whisky Magazine, has noticed that audiences at Whisky Live, a whisky festival held around the world, are no longer only older male professionals. In recent years he has seen more and more younger people attending, including couples and groups of women. Whisky is starting to have such a wide appeal that Scottish restaurant Albannach, on London’s Trafalgar Square, has just set up its own whisky club where members can attend tastings and meet distillers. “Lots of people’s first experience with whisky is also their last, and takes place aged 16 or 17 when they don’t really know what they’re drinking,” says Roskrow. “But with a bit of experimentation most people will find one that suits them.” Read more
Time off for good behaviour
The Guardian
18 February 2008
Some employers seem decidedly more fun to work for than others. Take the National Trust, for example, which will be giving all its 4,800 staff and 49,000 volunteers the day off, paid, on February 29. The only catch is that staff are being asked to spend the time reducing their own carbon footprint in what the Trust is calling the Green Leap Day initiative. Read more...
Circle of friends
The Guardian
12 November 2007
Sometimes, it is not what you know, but who you know. A cliche, maybe, but not one without truth - which is why so many of us spend spare moments networking our way into promising professional positions. But in some industries opportunities are more difficult to access: the old boy network helping, well, old boys, rather more than women with its focus on traditionally male pursuits. Informal social events such as playing golf, watching footy in the pub, lunching at the club - they might not be activities that explicitly exclude women, but they aren't going out of their way to be female-friendly, either. Read more...
Assistance from above
The Independent
2 November 2007
If one thing is clear about aid operations involving aircraft, it is that all missions are team efforts. From mapping and planning, to flying the aircraft and moving the aid once it’s been delivered, there needs to be a huge amount of organisation, negotiation and communication. These are three qualities that David Stevens possesses in spades, honed over 23 years of working in logistics for the Royal Air Force and 16 years for British Aerospace. Now aged 65, he’s been on several emergency missions as part of an Emergency Response Unit for the British Red Cross. Read more...
Dynamic Duos
The Guardian
27 October 2007
Carey Oppenheim has had a working relationship in one form or another with Lisa Harker for years, including writing a book with her. In th summer, they were appointed co-directors at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), the progressive thinktank they have worked for in the past Together they are among the most senior jobsharers in the country, and two of th most influential women in politics. Read more...
A job that delivers
Careers Adviser
26 October 2007
If you believe what you see on television hospital dramas, then being a midwife is all about high drama on the maternity ward or delivering babies in unusual places. However, midwifery is about a lot more than that says Melanie Every, regional manager South at the Royal College of Midwives. "One of the things that is quite important to think about is that there isn't really a clear dividing line between hospital midwives and community midwives. They all work across the whole area so it's not necessarily about choosing between one or the other. Midwives provide total care sometimes even before the pregnancy begins by giving advice on giving up smoking or diet." Read more...
Unearthing the facts
Careers Adviser
26 October 2007
Whether you are advising a fair-weather gardener who enjoys pottering in their own backyard, or somebody who yearns to be in charge of a several hundred acres of gardens and meadows, there is likely to be a horticulture course to suit. Qualifications are available from BTEC and NPTC (City & Guilds) right up to postgraduate study. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) also offers four levels of qualification and the opportunity to undertake distance learning. Read more
Why candidates are more likely to find employment if they have worked before their Masters
The Independent
4 October 2007
With tough competition for graduate jobs, many people are seeking to put themselves ahead of the crowd by taking a higher degree in business. While many people with experience decide to study for an MBA, there are plenty of Masters courses in business on offer for people with experience and people with none. Read more...
In search of talent from all communities
The Independent
27 September 2007
Sectors that were once the preserve of white middle-class men now put a lot of time into attracting a diverse pool of applicants to their graduate jobs. Of course, as with anything in business, the main driver for recruiting from as diverse a group as possible is profitability and there is a clear business case in having people from ethnic minorities working for you. Read more
Gender equality in surveying: redressing the balance
The Independent
20 September 2007
In 2000 the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) set up the Raising the Ratio taskforce to help break down barriers to the recruitment and retention of women in the property profession. Its work centres around five key statements, which RICS calls their "five uncommon values". These are to represent and effectively communicate the issues and challenges faced by women throughout the property and construction profession, to attract the best candidates into the profession irrespective of gender, to create a meritocracy within the profession, to break down barriers that prevent women from entering the profession and to keep women's issues high on the agenda of people in the profession, the employers, the educationalists and the Government. Read more
Fallen women
The Guardian
13 August 2007
It should be a cause for celebration: a fantastic new job or promotion, with loads of responsibility and, hopefully, recognition attached. After years of slogging it out, you've finally got the position you've always felt you deserved. There is just one problem - the job description demands you do the impossible. Sound familiar? If you're a woman - or in fact anyone except a white, middle-aged, able-bodied man without childcare responsibilities - it may indeed ring a bell. Crashing through the glass ceiling is one thing, surviving the so-called "glass cliff", where you are promoted to a job where you are likely to fail, is quite another. Read more
The brand wagon
Guardian - Comment is Free
9 August 2007
I've been writing an article about the new Department for Children, Schools and Families and Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, which have replaced the Department for Education and Skills. I have to say I was dismayed by the way the pair are utterly different in their branding. The DCSF has a blue and red text-heavy website, the logo being the name of the department in lower case letters across two lines. (Is it just me or does anyone else wonder how grammar and spelling will be taught in schools if the department in charge of it can't even use capital letters in its own name?) The DIUS has rather fetching suffragette colours - purple, white and green - and an altogether more modern look with the logo comprising the department's name on a purple rectangle with a mix of bold and normal font. While I don't doubt these two looks will be the result of expensive branding exercises and much research into the public's perception of logos (just like the heavy metal band-esque Olympics logo for 2012, or the Tories' drastic change of colour scheme), it seems a colossal waste of money to have different branding for each department. Read more
All Talk
Guardian - Comment is Free
6 July 2007
Gordon Brown has switched weekly cabinet meetings from Thursdays to Tuesdays to allow for longer discussions. Poor cabinet ministers. The content may be more interesting than that of the average staff meeting but still, I bet they are groaning at the thought of having to spend more time sitting around discussing things in the full knowledge that, like most work meetings, they will achieve nothing. One person I know has meetings at work where everybody has to stand up for the duration. It may fall foul of disability discrimination law but it does ensure brevity, something missing from most work meetings. Read more
Reality bites
Guardian - Education
5 June 2007
"Imagine being locked up in a toilet with no way to get out." That's how Bobby Cummines, 55, describes being in a prison cell to children. "Then I tell them the guy above them has stinky feet and doesn't wash too well, and 250 other people have slept on the bed you're sleeping on." The reason Cummines believes his talks in schools work so well is that the children can be sure he knows what he's talking about. "We've got the street cred that the teacher hasn't got," he says. "They know we're talking from experience rather than guesswork." Cummines spent 13 years in prison for armed robbery and gangland shootings in the 70s and 80s. He is now chief executive of Unlock, the national association of reformed offenders. Read more
Advanced apprenticeships: laying the foundations for a career in surveying
The Independent
20 September 2007
It takes many years of academic study and professional experience to qualify as a chartered surveyor. Once qualified, however, you have the potential to work on the most exciting projects of our age, creating the next world class stadium, protecting the world's reefs, laying pipelines on the seabed, planning cities, creating man-made islands or designing computer games. But for those who don't wish to follow the traditional route of a RICS-accredited degree course as a first step, there is another way. Read more
Under your skin
Having a tattoo is no longer a great act of rebellion - so why can your employer still demand that you cover it up? Ellie Levenson investigates your appearance rights
2 July 2007
The Guardian
Eyndia Gopal has nine tattoos and one piercing. Three of his tattoos - two on his forearms and one on the back of his neck - are visible when he is dressed in his normal workday attire and his piercing, a nipple ring, can often be seen through his clothes."I've got nine tattoos, including two on my forearms. They are what I would consider nice tattoos, including my mother's name in a nice font," he says. "I also have tattoos on my shoulders, one on the back of my leg and one on my bicep. They all mean something to me. It's a timeline of different things that have happened in my life, which is why I'm proud of them all. They are not mistakes I made when I was drunk." In the past Gopal, who works for the PR firm Eulogy!, had to ensure his tattoos were not on display at work: "My previous employer insisted that my tattoos were covered up, even during the summer, but the company I now work for is happy for me to show my tattoos and meet clients with them visible, which is an extremely refreshing change." Read more
Musicians take note: FE colleges are ideal for budding artists
The Independent
28 June 2007
It's well known to their fans that the Arctic Monkeys studied music at Barnsley College, a fact that no doubt helps attract budding musicians to the college. Leeds College of Technology also celebrates a famous name, albeit an older one. They revealed a plaque this year to mark the fact that Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett wrote the hit "See Emily Play" on site after playing a gig there in April 1967. Colleges are proud of the music students they teach, both those in the limelight and those behind the scenes. But how can they be so sure that they offer one of the best environments to study the subject? Read more
Let the mind games begin
Guardian - G2
1 May 2007
Cannons Gym in the City of London is like no other gym I have ever seen, though it's fair to say I haven't been to that many. It has a cafe, several mini-gyms, a swimming pool and a sauna, and is tucked away under the railway arches at Cannon Street, so that whenever a train rattles overhead the whole building shakes slightly. It also has on offer a series of puzzles for members to tackle during their exercise, as part of their "train your brain" promotion. The idea is that the fitter you get, the brainier you get, making your time in the gym doubly useful - or, another way of looking at it, doubly gruelling. Read more
No folds barred
Guardian - G2
13 March 2007
In the Hassidic Jewish community of Stamford Hill in north London, artists are as rare as women who work outside the home. So to find a woman artist living here is particularly unusual. But then, by her own admission, Gitl Wallerstein-Braun is "unorthodox orthodox". Now aged 57, she graduated from London's Central Saint Martins last year and is already achieving international success with her photographs of her sculptures. Read more
It’s my body and I’ll roar if I want to
The Times - Body & Soul
10 March 2007
I’m lying on my back on the floor, totally naked, and a man, dressed only in his underpants, is crouching over me, paintbrush in hand.He is Rick Mills, 32, an IT consultant from Shrewsbury, and he has been painting a dragon design on my body for the past three hours. He started off wearing a feminine beautician’s outfit but, as the room became hotter and the tension increased, he gradually stripped off and now he’s down to his pants. In the first hour he turned my stomach into a dark red mouth with bright white fangs, and my breasts into terrifying eyes, my nipples the black pupils. He’s now working on my legs, painting them with scales in metallic orange, purple and yellow. “Is he turning you into a fish?” asks someone who has come by to gawp, looking at my legs being transformed into something that is, admittedly, more mermaid than mythical beast. But there’s only one response a dragon can make to such a comment. I push out my tummy so the mouth grows and let it come: “Rooooaaaaaaaaar!” Read more
Own goal
Guardian - G2
21 February 2007
Given that my friends either call themselves feminists, or are, at the very least, intelligent and independent, I have been surprised, as I have reached my late twenties, by how many have turned out to be desperate to get married. A few years ago, they were raging over the pay gap and the glass ceiling - but recently their concerns seem to have changed. Friends who once said that they didn't believe in the institution of marriage can be found with their noses in the latest bridal magazines, worrying about which colour is more appropriate for their dress: white or off-white? But beyond the exhausting details of frock, hair and makeup, marriage raises important issues for your average modern women. How should we feel about the tradition that men do the asking, for instance? What about the symbolism of the ring? Should a woman change her name? Is it appropriate to be "given away"? Of all these, the tradition that I have always thought most objectionable - but I imagined had ceased to exist - is that of fathers being asked for their daughters' hand in marriage. Read more
Sex, lies and the morning-after pill
It makes sense to keep emergency contraception in the house 'just in case'. So why do we have to be so deceitful to get it, asks Ellie Levenson
Guardian - G2
24 November 2006
One Saturday night, when her favoured method of contraception - condoms - let her down, Jennifer Clark, 34, knew that it was time to seek an emergency back-up. Due to weekend opening times and work commitments, she was unable to get to a pharmacist until Monday night, and, while she realised that this was "cutting it a bit fine to get within the 72-hour limit, I thought that I'd be OK". She bought some emergency contraception and took the pills exactly as prescribed.Four weeks later, Clark found herself, "looking rather tearfully at two blue lines on a pregnancy test". The pregnancy was very much unplanned, and she went on to have an abortion. Read more
Forty weeks to change a life
Guardian - G2
23 June 2006
Whether it's her father's nose and her mother's lips or his eyes and her cheekbones, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, 2006's most famous baby, is going to have a lovely face and, as far as silver spoons go, a lovely life. Not only has she got all the material goods that two film-star parents can provide, she has also had the best possible start in life: a mother who could afford a healthy lifestyle while pregnant. For babies born to less well-off parents, the picture is not always such a rosy one. A woman who is not employed and has no partner to support her receives only about £50 a week from the state: not a lot for someone who needs to cram as many healthy foods into her as possible, not to mention a new wardrobe. Yet a mother's health and diet before and during pregnancy are factors in determining her offspring's health, not only in childhood but - as is increasingly being acknowledged - throughout life. Read more
Whisky, miss? Go-go for it
The Times - Times 2
16 November 2005
So whisky is an old man’s drink, right? Wrong. Younger men, and women, are getting to know their malts from their blends and their Speyside from their Islay. Dominic Roskrow, editor of Whisky Magazine, has noticed that audiences at Whisky Live, a whisky festival held around the world, are no longer only older male professionals. In recent years he has seen more and more younger people attending, including couples and groups of women. Whisky is starting to have such a wide appeal that Scottish restaurant Albannach, on London’s Trafalgar Square, has just set up its own whisky club where members can attend tastings and meet distillers. “Lots of people’s first experience with whisky is also their last, and takes place aged 16 or 17 when they don’t really know what they’re drinking,” says Roskrow. “But with a bit of experimentation most people will find one that suits them.” Read more