Hi I’m Jill Phillip, award-winning online journalist/writer, contributor to web and print national titles, including the Guardian and Observer, walking and cycling enthusiast and, as far as possible, sustainable traveller.
A past winner at the prestigious Norwich Union Medical Journalism Awards, I have established a national profile as a freelance journalist with regular contributions to both online and print versions of Guardian Money and Observer Cash. In 2006 I was one of the first mainstream journalists to focus on the looming catastrophe of sub prime mortgages.
Recently I have realised a long-held ambition of writing about my travel experiences, on foot, by bike and by sustainable public transport, in the UK and across Europe. Sharing my tales of cycling around Scotland’s spectacular islands, walking through the UK’s most wonderful (car-free) wilderness, or the thrill and romance of travelling across western Europe on overnight trains will, hopefully, encourage others to sample these more interesting and authentic ways to reach new places.
Alongside my own writing, I also review travel guides and books on the outdoors such as Cicerones’ guide to the Rhine Cycle Route. Full review can be seen here.
Walking and cycling are my default modes for everyday journeys and I try to encourage more sustainable and safer travel. Contributions to influential cycling blogs and specialised publications, such as Snowshoe Magazine help increase my profile.
I admit to both an unhealthy addiction to good coffee and cake – an obsession I justify by the calories consumed when cycling and walking – and an equal pleasure in divulging the best locations to feed my habit; whether that is a cool, urban retreat, or a sturdy, windswept tearoom.
I use my academic skills as a historian to devise appropriately themed walking and cycling tours, as well as to analyse key problems, such as the environmental impact of flying or the dangers of road space ‘wars’
Travelling sustainably is exciting and rewarding and writing about it, as much a privilege as a pleasure.