Authors

Holden Frith is The Week's digital director, a role in which he is responsible for digital strategy, product development and editorial direction. He also makes regular appearances on "The Week Unwrapped" podcast, speaking about subjects as diverse as vaccine development and bionic bomb-sniffing locusts. He joined The Week in 2013, spending five years editing the magazine's website before moving into his current role. Before that, he was deputy digital editor at The Sunday Times, where he was part of the team that launched the newspaper's digital subscription service – and was responsible for day-to-day production on the app and website. He has also been TheTimes.co.uk's technology editor and the launch editor of Wired magazine's UK website.

Holden has worked in journalism for nearly two decades, having started his professional career while completing an English literature degree at Cambridge University. He followed that with a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University in Chicago. A keen photographer, he also writes travel features whenever he gets the chance.

Hollie Clemence is the UK executive editor. She joined the team in 2011 and spent six years as news editor for the site, during which time the country had three general elections, a Brexit referendum, a Covid pandemic and a new generation of British royals. Before that, she was a reporter for IHS Jane's Police Review, and travelled around the country interviewing police chiefs, politicians and rank-and-file officers, occasionally from the back of a helicopter or police van.

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In between an English literature bachelor's degree from Cardiff University and a master's in magazine journalism from City University, London, she spent five months in Accra and Shanghai, working on a Ghanaian national newspaper, a lifestyle and entertainment magazine and a radio station. As well as editing a series of specialist career titles and university alumni magazines, she has written for a range of publications and websites including TheTimes.co.uk, Police Oracle and the World Entertainment News Network (WENN). Find her on Twitter @hollieclemence.

Kari Wilkin is the global managing editor for The Week Digital. She joined the UK site as production editor in 2017, after moving across from The Week magazine. Her career as a journalist began in national newspapers including The Sun, where she was a features sub-editor for more than six years. She also edited news stories at Metro, the Daily Star and News of the World. A shift into magazines saw her helping to launch the UK edition of Women's Health, as chief sub-editor with a sideline in writing, followed by stints at Elle and Asda Magazine.

She has also written travel and lifestyle articles for titles including The Daily Telegraph and The Sun; is a regular contributor on award-winning podcast "The Week Unwrapped"; and helped to set up The Week's short-form documentary podcast, "The Overview". She speaks Norwegian, having studied at Oslo University for a year with the now-defunct Erasmus scheme as part of her degree in English language and literature. After graduating from Leeds University, she spent a year teaching in Fukushima, so she knows a bit of Japanese too. Find her on Twitter @KariWilkin.

Rebecca Messina is the deputy editor of The Week's UK digital team. She first joined The Week in 2015 as an editorial assistant, later becoming a staff writer and then deputy news editor, and was also a founding panellist on "The Week Unwrapped" podcast. In 2019, she left to become a digital editor on lifestyle magazines in Bristol, in which role she oversaw the launch of interiors website YourHomeStyle.uk, before returning to The Week in 2024. 

Rebecca became interested in journalism while studying French and Italian at the University of Oxford, and got her first work experience during a year abroad, as an intern on Internazionale, followed by a stint as a writer for Rome-based English-language newspaper The Italian Insider. After graduating, she began her career as an editorial assistant at AOL. In her spare time, she is also a panellist on "Today in History with the Retrospectors", a British Podcast Awards-nominated daily history show.

Arion McNicoll is a senior writer at The Week and was previously the UK website's editor. He has also held senior editorial roles at CNN, The Times and The Sunday Times.

Along with his writing work, he co-hosts "Today in History with The Retrospectors", Rethink Audio's flagship daily podcast, and is a regular panellist (and occasional stand-in host) on "The Week Unwrapped". He is also a judge for The Publisher Podcast Awards.

Jamie Timson is the UK news editor. Having been with the team from 2015 to 2019 holding roles including intern, editorial assistant and staff writer, he rejoined in September 2022. He was a founding panellist on "The Week Unwrapped" podcast, often discussing politics, foreign affairs and conspiracy theories, sometimes separately, sometimes all at once. Now he commissions stories for the website's daily news output.

Before rejoining The Week, Jamie worked in the Civil Service as a senior press officer at the Department for Transport. Over three years, he developed a penchant for crisis communications working on Brexit, the fuel crisis, the response to Covid-19 and HS2. Despite enjoying the cut and thrust of Westminster politics, he always harboured a desire to return to the world of journalism where he had started out at The Edinburgh Journal in 2012 before moving on to work for the European Youth Press in 2014. Jamie was also a member of the Unesco Global Media Alliance On Media And Gender's International Steering Committee. He has a social history degree from the University of Edinburgh and can be found on Twitter @JKTimson.

Julia O'Driscoll is the global engagement editor. She covers UK and world news, as well as writing lifestyle, food and travel features, and is a regular guest on "The Week Unwrapped" podcast. Julia previously hosted The Week's short-form documentary podcast, "The Overview", interviewing guest experts on topics including nuclear power, international politics and women's football. Julia is an experienced digital strategist with expertise in social media, newsletters, audience development and influencer marketing. 

After writing for student publications and interning at the Hay Literary Festival, she began her career as a print and digital journalist on magazine titles at Norwich-based publishing company Archant. She later moved to London and joined sustainability consultancy Eco-Age. During her tenure there as a social media and content editor, Julia oversaw a digital rebrand, managed the social media strategy for the Green Carpet Fashion Awards and interviewed prominent voices in the sustainable fashion and climate justice movements.

She has a master's in liberal arts from Bristol University, where she specialised in English literature and art history. She also spent a year studying at Charles University in Prague, dabbling in music anthropology, indigenous literatures and art curation. Find her on Instagram at @juliaroseod and Twitter at @JuliaRoseOD.

Rebekah Evans joined The Week as newsletter editor in 2023. She is a regular on "The Week Unwrapped" podcast, and has also written on subjects ranging from Ukraine and Afghanistan to fast fashion and "brotox". As newsletter editor, she writes The Week's Food & Drink and Travel newsletters, and also curates the Culture & Life newsletter each Friday.

Rebekah started her career at Reach plc, where she cut her teeth on news, before pivoting into personal finance at the height of the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis. Social affairs is another of her passions, covering topics from Grenfell to the NHS and mental health. She has interviewed people from across the world and from all walks of life. Rebekah has also written for publications including The Guardian, The Week magazine, the Press Association and local newspapers. She decided to become a journalist while still at school. While reading English at King's College London, she juggled a role as editor-in-chief of the university newspaper, Roar News, while moonlighting as an executive producer for the university's flagship student political radio show. After graduating, she completed an NCTJ with the Press Association. Rebekah can be found on Twitter at @rebekah_ne.

Sorcha Bradley is a writer at The Week and a regular on "The Week Unwrapped" podcast. She worked at The Week magazine for a year and a half after joining in 2019 and then took up her current role with the digital team, where she mostly covers UK current affairs and politics. Before joining The Week, Sorcha worked at slow-news start-up Tortoise Media, where she covered topics ranging from artificial intelligence to the inner workings of tech giants such as Amazon. She has also written for Sky News, The Sunday Times, the London Evening Standard and Grazia magazine, among other publications.

She has a master's in newspaper journalism from City, University of London, where she specialised in political journalism. For her undergraduate degree, she read English literature and classical studies at the University of Bristol. She caught the journalism bug while studying at Bristol, where she was news editor for the university paper, Epigram. Find her on Twitter @sorchabradley.

Harriet Marsden is a writer for The Week, mostly covering UK and global news and politics. Before joining the site in 2023, she was a freelance journalist for seven years, specialising in social affairs and culture. She worked for The Guardian, The Times and The Independent, and regularly contributed articles to The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The New Statesman, Tortoise Media, Metro and many other titles, as well as appearing on BBC Radio London, Times Radio and "Woman's Hour".

In 2021, she was awarded the "journalist-at-large" fellowship by the Local Trust charity, and spent a year travelling independently to some of England's most deprived areas to write about community activism. She has also worked as a journalist in Bolivia, Colombia and Spain, and has a master's in international journalism from City University, London. As an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge, she studied modern languages, specialising in Latin America. She has developed a particular interest in feminism and gender equality, contributing eight chapters to DK's "The Feminism Book" and regularly appearing as a commentator on women's issues. She has also written a historical fiction novel on the wives of Henry VIII. In 2023, she attended the 67th Commission on the Status of Women as a UN Women UK delegate. Find her at @harriet1marsden on Twitter.

Irenie Forshaw is a features writer at The Week, mainly covering arts, culture and travel. She began her career in journalism at Leeds University, where she wrote for the student newspaper, The Gryphon, and interned at TV Times. In 2018, she joined the acquisitions department of a film locations company, sourcing and researching buildings for productions across London.

She then worked in the brand team at The Guardian, before moving to the New Statesman Media Group (NSMG), where she wrote features for a range of B2B magazines and online publications on topics ranging from cyberattacks in space to Covid testing on North sea oil rigs.

Irenie went on to become a senior writer at NSMG's lifestyle magazine, Elite Traveler, where she oversaw The Experts column, interviewing Michelin-starred chefs including Clare Smyth, Mauro Colagreco and Alain Ducasse. She also wrote travel features on a series of memorable trips, from a Scottish sea safari through the Inner Hebrides to a behind-the-scenes tour of a Parisian chocolate factory.

Stephen Kelly is a photo editor and illustrator for The Week Digital, creating original artwork to accompany articles and social media, as well as curating photography and cartoons. Before joining the team in 2023, Stephen managed the photographic archive for multimedia publisher Future, working on everything from picture editing and content licensing to directing photo shoots. He has also been a freelance illustrator, contributing editorial artwork to magazines and websites including T3, Rock Sound, Tom’s Guide, Property Week and Cycling Plus, while also writing about music for Total Guitar and MusicRadar.

Stephen studied illustration at the University of Dundee and Ontario College of Art and Design, specialising in narrative art (he once self-published his own comic, it was weird), and loves to incorporate storytelling and humour into his work.

Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade. He has been a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude.

He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine's bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books, including internationally bestselling biographies of Adele, Amy Winehouse and Justin Bieber. His most recent books are "Running: Cheaper Than Therapy" and "The Runner's Code", both published by Bloomsbury. Chas appears regularly on television, radio and podcasts discussing everything from veganism to running and show business.

Richard Windsor is a freelance writer for The Week Digital. He began his journalism career by writing about politics and sport while studying at the University of Southampton. He then worked across various football publications before specialising in cycling for almost nine years, covering major races including the Tour de France and interviewing some of the sport's top riders. He led Cycling Weekly's digital platforms as editor for seven of those years, helping to transform the publication into the UK's largest cycling website.

He left that role to go freelance in April 2022, but still covers cycling as part-time digital editor for independent magazine and website Rouleur. He also works as a writer and consultant helping brands with their content, specialising particularly in digital content strategy and optimisation.

Elliott Goat is a freelance writer at The Week Digital, having previously edited the site's former daily news app. A winner of The Independent's Wyn Harness Award, he has been a journalist for over a decade with a focus on human rights, disinformation and elections.

He is co-founder and director of Brussels-based investigative NGO Unhack Democracy, which works to support electoral integrity across Europe. A Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellow focusing on unions and the Future of Work, Elliott is a founding member of the RSA's Good Work Guild and a contributor to the International State Crime Initiative, an interdisciplinary forum for research, reportage and training on state violence and corruption. He is an advisory board member of We Make Change, a social action social network.

Marc Shoffman is an NCTJ-qualified award-winning freelance journalist, specialising in business, property and personal finance. He has a BA in multimedia journalism from Bournemouth University and a master's in financial journalism from City University, London. His career began at FT Business trade publication Financial Adviser during the 2008 banking crash. In 2013, he moved to MailOnline's personal finance section This is Money, where he covered topics ranging from mortgages and pensions to investments and even a bit of Bitcoin.

Since going freelance in 2016, his work has appeared in print and online publications including MoneyWeek, The Times, The Mail on Sunday and the i news site. He also co-presents financial planning podcast In For A Penny and is a keen travel writer too. Find him on Twitter @marcshoffman and view his travel content on Instagram.

Adrienne Wyper has been a freelance sub-editor and writer for The Week's website and magazine since 2015. As a travel and lifestyle journalist, she has also written and edited for other titles including BBC Countryfile, British Travel Journal, Coast, Country Living, Country Walking, Good Housekeeping, The Independent, The Lady and Woman's Own. 

Her broad experience includes spells abroad, including editing annual financial reports in Tokyo and writing and editing celebrity news in Madrid for Hello! magazine. When not working, she loves exploring, on foot, by bike and by kayak, on her own doorstep and much further afield.

Keumars Afifi-Sabet is a freelance writer at The Week Digital, and is the technology editor on Live Science, another Future Publishing brand. An NCTJ-qualified journalist who specialises in technology and current affairs, his path into journalism began at university. He immersed himself in student media while studying for a degree in biomedical sciences at Queen Mary University of London. After graduating, Keumars wrote for a variety of local and national publications as a freelancer, including The Independent, The Observer and Metro. While studying for his NCTJ certification, his work was commended in the category of Top Scoop in the 2017 NCTJ awards.

He joined ITPro as a staff writer in 2018, covering public policy, fintech and smart cities. He was appointed as acting features editor in September 2021, and promoted in November 2022. As features editor, he oversaw the commissioning, editing and publication of in-depth and long-form articles across a variety of topics including AI, cloud computing and cyber security. He's also registered as a foundational chartered manager with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), having qualified as a Level 3 Team leader with distinction in 2023. In addition to writing for The Week Digital, he also contributes to Computeractive and TechRadar, among other publications.