I have worked for major international news outlets - BBC, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Al Jazeera English - as a correspondent, contributor and editor.

I left full-time journalism in 2012 to pursue a greater passion - travel. My snap year took in Pakistan, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and SIngapore. My second greatest love - Asia - took me to King's College London, where I read a War Studies MA and specialised in extreme civilian trauma and Afghan and South Asian security issues. This MA deepened my understanding of a region close to my heart.

I lived and worked in the Gulf for six months, as assistant editor for Al Jazeera English in Doha.

I have a broad range of interests - Indian soap operas, open water swimming, religious affairs, the power of the media to transform societies for good and for ill, human rights and, of course, experiencing the great unknown.