Our Writers

Exmoor Magazine welcomes ideas for new articles from local amateur and professional writers. If you have an idea which you would like to submit for consideration please contact us using the form below.

Submit an article idea here.

Here are some of our contributors:

Endymion Beer

Endymion BeerEndymion Beer is an illustrator, writer and naturalist. She is currently the National Youth Officer for the British Naturalists Association.

 

Cindy Cowling

Cindy CowlingCindy Cowling, a self-confessed ‘horse addict’, began competing her pony with the Cowdray and Leconfold Pony Club before moving to Devon in the late ’80s.  Whilst doing a Farm Business Management course at Bicton Agricultural College, Cindy took her BHS (British Horse Society) exams as well as riding for local event yards.  At this time, she also began instructing with the East Devon Pony Club and then in New Zealand, as well as the UK.  Cindy is currently Chief Instructor for the Devon and Somerset Pony Club.

With the arrival of her two children, Samuel and Ellen, Cindy began writing ‘In The Stableyard’ for Exmoor Magazine.  She graduated through the Open University with a BA (Open) in the spring of 2015, which was the culmination of five years’ work.  She is hoping to use some of her new skills including design and innovation, to bring new products to the market (equestrian-based of course!)

Victoria Eveleigh

Victoria (Tortie) Eveleigh visited Exmoor throughout her childhood because her grandmother owned West Ilkerton Farm, near Lynton. After university (BSc in geography from St Andrews University and MSc in farm business management from Wye College), she moved to West Ilkerton and worked part time for the Exmoor National Park Authority. She married Chris in 1986, and they have been farming West Ilkerton ever since. Victoria is the author of nine children’s books (she self-published first, and was then taken on by Orion Children’s Books in 2011) and she has written for several publications, including the Bradt travel guide Slow Devon & Exmoor.
www.victoriaeveleigh.co.uk

Sandy Francis

Sandy Francis lived and worked on Exmoor for 20 years and now divides her time between relaxing and writing in and around the National Park and working across the South West as a counsellor and lecturer. She has had over 500 articles published since 2000, mostly leisure related, and is particularly interested in the ‘people side of things’ and the harmony between the land and the community.

Tony James

A former Fleet Street editor, Tony James is now a freelance journalist and author, writing regularly for approximately 30 magazines and newspapers worldwide, on subjects as varied as business, finance, sport, gardening, show business and the countryside. He has various monthly columns and has written over 20 books, the two most recent being Up The Creek and Yankee Jack Sails Again (Seafarer Books). Tony is also a sailor, model boat-maker and jazz musician.

Jane A. Mares

jane mares.jpgJane Mares was born in a North Devon farmhouse tucked into a steep valley-bottom between woods and water. She now lives in a Somerset cottage on the fringe of Exmoor. She works as a gardener and has written articles on organic gardening and poetry for various magazines, including The Countryman and the Exmoor Review. She says: “Writing is a form of repayment for the luck of living in the West Country, where nightingales may still be heard if you know where to listen and bee orchids may be seen, and no doubt piskies, if you know where to look.”

Mel Roach

Mel Roach is a semi-nomadic writer, organic gardener, woodland worker and fledgling botanist. She lives off-grid in her home county of Devon where she takes care of a large private garden, conducts botanical surveys and is finally finishing off a degree in Natural Sciences. She has lived on Exmoor and been a regular visitor to the region for over 25 years. Photography, painting, endless walking and local history are her other passions – these are occasionally crammed in after the plants and word-wrangling have been attended to.

Avril Stone

Avril Stone moved with her parents to Barnstaple in 1950 and so she considers herself very much a Barumite. She has been in love with the scenery, architecture and wildlife of Exmoor from her very first excursions on Sunday afternoon family picnics. Her father’s interest in photography led to her passion for capturing the magic of Exmoor on film. She has written a number of local histories, including a book on High Bickington and the two-volume The Book of Barnstaple. In 2002 Avril and her husband went on an adventure and moved to the west coast of Scotland and built their dream house. Here Avril wrote her fourth book Southend, Mull of Kintyre Reunited. Returning to her West Country home and family in 2010 Avril is once again enjoying capturing the lives of local people in words and photographs. In 2014 she added The Book of Braunton to her list of published books.

Sue Viccars

Sue Viccars has written and revised many Dartmoor and Exmoor walks books, including Short Walks Exmoor and the Pathfinder Guide to Exmoor & The Quantocks (Crimson); her Pathfinder Guide to North & Mid Devon (Crimson) was published in 2012, the third edition of 20 Walks in Devon (AA) in 2013 and the revised edition of her 40 Short Walks in Devon (AA) in 2014. Her most recent book, a new guide to The Two Moors Way/Devon’s Coast to Coast Walk (Cicerone Press) was published in June 2015. She has also produced many articles on the South West for magazines such as Country Life, Country Walking and Outdoor Enthusiast. Sue is a partner in Blackingstone Publishing, and editor and part owner of Dartmoor Magazine.

Michelle Werrett

Michelle Werrett is a farm consultant specialising in the integration of wildlife conservation with commercial livestock production. She advises on design and management of ponds, hedges and woodland and on pasture management for farm livestock or horses. She helps with grant applications and all farm paperwork. Michelle has lived in the Exmoor area all her life and is often seen out on the moor riding side-saddle.
https://michellewerrettruralwriting.wordpress.com

Jeff Cox

jeff coxJeff Cox is the great-great grandson of the printer Samuel Cox, who launched the West Somerset Free Press in 1860. Jeff reported for the Free Press in the late 1970s and for the past 25 years, has worked with BBC foreign news, based in London and travelling the world on major news stories. In 2010, his anthology of local news reports, West Somerset In The News, was published by Halsgrove.

Elaine Pearce

Writer, equine instructor in the UK and abroad, equine welfare adviser for Redwings Horse Sanctuary. Resident in Exmoor for over 20 years.

 

Rosemary FitzGerald

Rosemary FitzGerald was brought up in Ireland and Scotland under the influence of Wild Flower Society friends and a gardening grandmother, so has always been fascinated by plants on both sides of the garden fence. This sustaining love was maintained through varying early jobs and eventually led to a career in professional field botany, auditing the most threatened wild species throughout the UK and Ireland. Unable to stop looking for plants at ‘retirement’, Rosemary ran a small nursery on the West Somerset coast, where  she still botanises for national and local survey schemes, gardens and write and speaks about these never-ending interests. She also provides a garden consultation service.

the late Mary Bromiley

The late Mary was brought up in North Devon and moved back to Exmoor 14 years ago. As a Chartered Physiotherapist she was responsible for persuading the veterinary profession to accept the fact that animals, like humans, benefit from appropriate physiotherapy. Published by Blackwells Scientific, she wrote a number of books on animal therapy, which have sold worldwide translated into seven languages. Her latest book, an autobiography, was published privately. She passed away in September 2019 and is much missed by the magazine.

Maurice Chidgey

Maurice 2West-Somerset-born Maurice Chidgey is a keen local historian and member of the Watchet Market House Museum, serving on its committee.  For 50 years Maurice was in the printing department of the West Somerset Free Press and was also involved in the production of several books and magazines, including the  Exmoor Review from its inception in 1959 (then priced 1s 6d!).  Since his retirement, Maurice (with help from his wife Joyce) has written four books in the Halsgrove Community History series and has also contributed to various magazines and publications.  He is interested in sport, especially cricket, of which he was a keen player in his younger days.  Maurice and his wife have lived in Watchet for 55 years and have two daughters and three grandchildren.


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