Authors | The Week UK

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 executive editor at TheWeek.co.uk. 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.

In between an English literature bachelor’s degree from Cardiff University and a master’s in magazine journalism from City University, she spent five months living in Accra and Shanghai, working on a Ghanian 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 managing editor, global, 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.

Jessica Hullinger is deputy editor, global, for The Week digital. Originally from the American Midwest, she completed a degree in journalism at Indiana University Bloomington before relocating to New York City, where she pursued a career in media. Since joining The Week as an intern in 2010, she has also served as the title’s audience development manager, senior editor and deputy editor, as well as being a regular guest on The Week Unwrapped podcast.

Her writing has featured in other publications including Popular Science, Fast Company, Fortune, and Self magazine, and she loves covering science and climate-related issues. Find her on twitter @JessHullinger.

Mike Starling is the digital features editor at TheWeek.co.uk, where he writes content and edits the Arts & Life, Business and Sport sections of the website. He started his career in 2001 in Gloucestershire as a trainee sports reporter and sub-editor and has since held various roles as a writer and editor at news, travel and B2B publications. 

Sport is his specialist subject, but the growth of the sporting industry in the past 20 years has seen him cover the related business, tourism and marketing arenas as much as the action on the field. He has spoken at a number of sports business conferences and also worked as a consultant creating sports travel content for tourism boards. His international experience includes spells living and working in Dubai, UAE; Brisbane, Australia; and Beirut, Lebanon. He has worked on many publication launches, including a daily newspaper, travel magazine and news website. 

Jamie Timson is the news editor at TheWeek.co.uk. 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.

Before rejoining The Week, Jamie worked in the Civil Service as a Senior Press Officer at the Department for Transport. Over 3 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. He has a Social History degree from the University of Edinburgh and can be found on Twitter @JKTimson. 

Julia O’Driscoll is the engagement editor, global. She specialises in environmental news and lifestyle features. As well as regularly featuring on The Week Unwrapped, Julia hosted and assisted in producing The Week’s short-form documentary podcast, The Overview. She is an experienced digital strategist with expertise in social media, newsletter and influencer marketing. She began her career as a print and digital journalist on magazine titles at Norwich-based publishing company Archant, before moving to London and joining sustainability consultancy Eco-Age. During her tenure there as a social media and content editor, Julia oversaw a digital rebrand and the implementation of the company’s new content strategy. Alongside feature writing and social-first content creation for a range of brands, she also interviewed and commissioned prominent voices from the sustainable fashion and climate justice spheres.

She has a master’s in liberal arts from Bristol University, and spent a year studying at Charles University in Prague during her degree. Find her on Instagram at @juliaroseod and Twitter at @JuliaRoseOD.

Sorcha Bradley is a writer at TheWeek.co.uk and a regular guest on award-winning podcast The Week Unwrapped. 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 TheWeek.co.uk, 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. As an undergraduate, she specialised in Spanish and Latin American studies. 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.

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 for the title’s UK and US sites. 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 TheWeek.co.uk team for more than a decade. He writes the content for the Weekday AM newsletter, including Ten Things You Need To Know and Odd News. 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 TheWeek.co.uk. 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 TheWeek.co.uk, having previously edited the WeekDay 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. 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.

Arion McNicoll is a freelance writer at TheWeek.co.uk and was previously the website’s editor. He has also held senior editorial roles at NEWS, 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 weekly show The Week Unwrapped. He is also a judge for The Publisher Podcast Awards.