JOURNALIST

Journalist, Writer, Story Teller, Interviewer...

I am a writer, interviewer and journalist. My natural inclination is towards story telling and as such, I am not your ‘hard news’ writer. My style is one of delight at being allowed into your world and telling your story.

www.sollerweb.com is the great project that has inspired website designer Tracey Ivell and me for the past six years. This site tells the stories of the Soller Valley of Mallorca. It introduces the reader to the fine restaurants, shops and businesses’. The site also incorporates a Calendar of Events and daily Facebook stories. Hundreds of thousands of people read our work annually and we are very proud to have introduced so many to this beautiful place.

My newspaper published work in Mallorca is very centred on the Majorca Daily Bulletin. ‘Spotlight on Soller’ is a Tuesday page I have written about the area for the past 10 years. I write Sunday Interviews and ‘Nans Days Out’ stories about what to do with the children in school holidays. Humans of Majorca is a new series for 2018.

Humans of Majorca is a concept taken from the hugely popular Humans of New York photo blog run by Brendon Stanton. Brandon started this concept in 2010 and concentrated on the street life of New York. Most of his early interviewees were met in Central Park. The fascination for random people and their stories grew and grew and grew. This is his core work but developments have taken him to create a series of interviews with the people of many worldwide locations. Governments have invited him to talk to their people to get a feel about what the person on the street is really feeling at this time. He has also taken his art into posh places and talked to the great and the good. Presidents and priests talk to Brandon and his uncensored style is admired by the journalistic world. He publishes annual books of his stories and is invited to talk on TV as a social commentator of our age.

I have been developing this theme for some time now. I believe that Humans of Majorca is a springboard to so much fun plus serious evaluation of the people who are in Majorca today. Many of us know the stories of the past which really fascinate me. This means I can tell you so much Soller Valley history starting from 1800. I am equally interested in the development of Majorca in the 1960’s when the heart of El Terreno was alive with the famous and infamous and was the area that never slept.

Much as history and stories never fail to intrigue me my fascination has turned to the world of 2018 and why people are here in Majorca today. In a population where almost 50% of the people are incomers most have stories to tell. Their children growing up here and add to pool of information. The runaways are also stories waiting to be discovered. These people like to think they live below the radar but often they are longing for someone to listen to them. Sometimes they just let me tell their story too.

Humans of Majorca has the potential to be a social record of our time in this place and that is why annual books of the stories should be part of the project. Humans interviews are often requested by companies who want chats with all their staff to be part of their website stories.

All Humans are unique and this method of capturing our thoughts, attitudes and beliefs and recording them is the tip of a social iceberg. I am very excited that Humans of Majorca is now a regular feature here in the Majorca Daily Bulletin.

Shorter stories will also appear on Humans of Majorca Facebook page. I feel very much like Brandon Stanton must have felt in 2010 when he began his work. So many people, so many stories, so much media to enable the sharing. I really hope you will join me as we discover the people of our island together

I am delighted to be working with the only English daily Newspaper in Mallorca.