LUCY MCGUIRE
FREELANCE WRITER | JOURNALIST | COPYWRITER
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About
I'm an NCTJ-accredited journalist with an honours degree in Psychology and the first journalism job I had was as a trainee reporter on a regional newspaper in Manchester.
This job involved typical local reporter duties like attending late-night council meetings, following court cases and calling up the local fire station for the latest incidents. But as the dedicated feature writer, I got to have a lot of fun trying out the latest new attractions, having a go at news reporting in the BBC North West studios and joining the cast of local musicals for the purpose of writing colourful first-person features. This led to me winning the 02 Feature Writer of the Year award. I also wrote my first travel pieces on New York, Barbados and various UK destinations at this time.
Little did I know that it was the start of a career that would involve wine tasting in South Africa, canoeing beside hippos down the Zambezi and delving deep into the cuisine and landscapes of Yorkshire, where I grew up.
Some of my favourite features came out of a three-month trip across eastern and southern Africa where I visited Tanzania’s wildlife-brimming Ngorongoro Crater, Zanzibar’s serene coastlines and South Africa’s rolling winelands. Meeting a Maasai community and writing about the future of their evolving traditions was another highlight of this trip.
Other features have focused on my travels across the Caribbean, one of my favourite regions. My husband and I got married on the island of Jamaica where some of his (and now our children's) family heritage stems from.
After three years in regional news and feature writing, I worked as a freelancer, working across the features desks of various national women’s magazines in London. My key role was writing real-life features but other highlights included celeb interviews, swanky events and a real-life Masterchef experience (with the famous presenters, but not the film crew).
I knew that exploring the world and writing colourful travel and lifestyle features was my true calling so I started writing travel features and reviews for a range of blogs.
After a stint working as a Brand Journalist for Virgin Holidays, I returned to freelancing, honing my specialisms and getting bylines across national newspapers, magazines and websites.
In the years that followed, I freelanced in-house for an airline magazine and worked for a short period on National Geographic Traveller's branded content team, commissioning writers, editing copy and project managing campaigns.
After many years living in London, I now live in Hertfordshire with my husband and two children.
I now cover family and cultural travel, culinary journeys, hotel reviews, soft adventure, human-interest stories and more.
My recent bylines include The i, The Independent, AFAR magazine, Food & Travel, JRNY, National Geographic Traveller and The Telegraph.
I also write for trade magazines and produce commercial features for The Telegraph, Wanderlust and other well-known publications and brands.
Some of my favourite editorial features to date include:
The future of the Maasai communities of Kenya and Tanzania (Culture Trip)
Eating my way around North Yorkshire (National Geographic Traveller)
My first foray into theme park holidays at Türkiye’s Nickelodeon Land (The Telegraph)
Yorkshire's stately Bridgerton home with a quirky turret stay (The Times)
A literary-inspired stay in Yorkshire’s Brontë country (The Independent)
Plunging into Jamaica’s ‘Sunset Mecca’ (Escapism)
The extraordinary wildlife of Northumberland (TTG)
A wining and dining guide to South Africa's Cape Winelands (Foodism)
Find more of my editorial features here
Find more of my commercial content here
If you have any questions or you'd like to work together, feel free to contact me on