Gillian Thornton
TRAVEL WRITER AND PHOTOGRAPHER

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Writing was only ever meant to be a hobby, but after 30 years as a busy freelance, I regard my unexpected career as a very happy accident indeed. After training as a bilingual PA at the Institut Français in London, I worked for a variety of multinational companies whilst writing – and selling - articles in my spare time.

So when I was unexpectedly made redundant in 1980, I took the plunge and went freelance. Soon I was writing regularly for women’s magazines - general features, celebrity interviews, parenting articles and occasional travel pieces – as well as for regional publications and corporate clients.

In 1998, a couple of chance conversations led me into travel writing full-time and now I’ve come full circle back to my French roots. Today I’m an established specialist in France, travelling regularly to all corners of the country, whilst also writing on the UK and other European destinations.

I’m a regular contributor of features and digital images to specialist travel magazines, general interest publications and women’s titles, as well as writing for a travel website and undertaking copywriting for tourist brochures – see Markets. I love a new challenge and my 2011 diary is full of them.

 

SPECIALITIES I’m first and foremost a specialist in France but I also write about UK destinations and days out, European city breaks, family resorts, and hotels. I average a dozen trips to France each year and regions I know particularly well include Nord/Pas-de-Calais, Rhône-Alpes, Normandy, Midi-Pyrenees, Languedoc-Roussillon and Corsica. I speak and write fluent French, have a rusty Italian A-level and an even rustier German O-level. ^

 

MARKETS Despite the pressures from world recession and the Internet, I had 46 travel articles published in magazines during 2010, most of them around 1500 words long and illustrated with my own digital pictures. These appeared in the following titles: Living France; Destination France; The Traveller in France; France Magazine; Voyage (Brittany Ferries); IF (Irish Ferries); Oryx (Qatar Airways); Holiday Villas & Cottages; My Weekly; Yours; and Classic Stitches. Much though I love researching and writing destination features, I also enjoy copywriting, and so with traditional print markets closing, consolidating and cutting budgets in 2010, I was pleased to pick up a number of commercial projects writing brochures and website copy, mainly for French tourist boards. These involve a mix of original writing and translating, and enable me to use the expertise I have built up in 15 years of travelling round France. Tourist board clients during 2010 and the first half of 2011 included Normandy, Poitou-Charentes, the Loire Valley, Nord-Pas de Calais and Rhône-Alpes. I’ve also increased my presence on www.thetraveleditor.com, writing destination reports, hotel and attraction reviews, not just on France, but on a variety of destinations from England to Italy, Lapland to Oman, Germany to Canada. My growing portfolio now attracts an average of between 7000 and 8000 hits a month. ^

 

BEST TRAVEL EXPERIENCES Every trip delivers something good, but highlights for me have included watching brown bears in the forests of northern Finland and whales in the north Atlantic, seeing the French Alps from a paraglider and the Pyrenees from a hot air balloon. I’ve ridden over the lava fields of Iceland on a horse with five-speed gearbox and through lagoons dotted with flamingos in the Camargue. And whilst I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy luxury hotels and relaxing spas, some of my most enjoyable evenings have been spent in character B&Bs. ^

 Gillian Thornton


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