Our first journalist of the month for 2019 is Sally Beck! Sally writes health and real-life features for all the big hitters including the Daily Mail, The Mirror, The Sun, Woman, Woman’s Own, Glamour, Bella and Best plus many more. Sally has kindly taken time out of her busy week to answer the notorious Sunny Bird PR questions below…
1. What are the 5 words that best describe you?
Tenacious definitely, funny, generous, kind and absent-minded.
2. What magazine do you love reading and why?
There are so many! It has to be Vanity Fair. Although I love the women’s weeklies like Grazia and Woman’s Own, Vanity Fair has it all, celebrity, fashion, in-depth political features… what’s not to love?
3. What is your favourite book?
I recently read Their Eyes are Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. It was flagged up by Zadie Smith as one of the greatest American novels of the twentieth century, and it is. Written in 1937, it’s about a voiceless teenage girl’s journey into womanhood. It’s honest, compelling, and frankly, just a great story.
4. Which song makes you dance?
So many but the first that pops into my head is old skool - One Nation Under a Groove by Parliament Funkadelic.
5. What has been your best career moment?
Lordy, I’ve been blessed with a few but the first time I wrote a feature that made a difference was in the 1990s. I was working for a features agency who told me not to report on a young pressure group called Surfers Against Sewage (not a very romantic sounding name), but I did in my own time. SAS were campaigning for clean beaches at a time when Britain’s coastline with awash with waste. My feature made a spread in the Daily Mirror and it launched their campaign. It was picked up by every newspaper, including the broadsheets, and TV news channel and Channel 4 made a documentary about them. I learned to listen and trust my gut instinct.
6. What advice would you give your 20-year-old self?
Your twenties are for learning about yourself and your capabilities, be kind to yourself along the way. By the time you reach 30, you’ll have it sussed.
7. Where are you happiest?
On my way to the airport. I love an adventure and I love reporting foreign stories. If it’s a travel story, even better.
8. Who would be your number one dinner guest and why?
Mick Jagger. So many questions I’d like to ask him, starting with ‘how the Stones have managed to stay together for so long?’ It isn't just the money. I’d also love to know what it is about him that beautiful women of all ages find attractive. And it isn’t just his considerable fortune either.
9. If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?
To eat what I liked and never put on weight. I’m a real gourmet and there’s so much good food and so little time.
10. If you had to ask us one question what would it be?
What do you love about journalists?
Our answers…
Jess: Their creativity and passion to write about a wide range of topics.
Georgie: I love journalists that use their position to campaign for things they believe in.
Lizzie: I love reading articles and features by journalists that really enjoy writing; I love seeing their own use of language, style and sentence structure.
Laura: Their power to write articles that millions of people will read and be influenced by.
Alex: That they always have their finger on the pulse and are always one step ahead with the latest news, trends and stories.
Rachael: Their ability to find the best news angle and make an interesting read for different audiences.