Hello World (or at Least Hello, London)

So this is the bit where I'm supposed to introduce myself, and I have to admit that after three and a bit years of writing other people's "About Us" pages, writing my own is surprisingly hard. It turns out it's much easier to make a luxury handbag sound fascinating than it is to make yourself sound vaguely interesting without coming across as smug. Bear with me.

I'm Abi. I live in London, I write for a living, and I've been doing it on a freelance basis since 2012. Most of what I do is copywriting - web pages, product descriptions, catalogue copy, blog posts that go out under someone else's name - plus a decent amount of editing and proofreading. I also write regularly for a couple of online arts, culture and lifestyle magazines, which is the part of the job that lets me go to things and then have opinions about them in public.

Partly, if I'm honest, because a freelance writer without a website looks a bit like a plumber without a van. People want to see that you exist, that you can string a sentence together, and that you're not going to vanish halfway through a project. A portfolio does some of that work. A blog does the rest, because it shows how I actually write when nobody's handed me a brief.

The other reason is that I spend all day writing in other people's voices. I love it - there's a real craft to sounding like a heritage tea company one hour and a software start-up the next - but it does leave you wanting somewhere to sound like yourself. This is that somewhere.

Roughly speaking, four things, in no particular order:

• Writing and freelancing. What I've learned about working through content platforms, dealing with clients, pricing, editing and the general business of putting words in order for money.
• Cooking. I cook most nights, usually on a budget, usually in a kitchen roughly the size of a wardrobe. Expect recipes that are realistic rather than beautiful.
• Politics. I'm a Green Party member and I care a lot about housing, air quality and how we're going to live in this city in twenty years' time. I'll try not to shout.
• Unabashed nerdiness. Science fiction, board games, new technology, and whatever I'm currently reading far too late into the night.

I'm not going to promise a post every Monday morning, because I know myself and that promise would last about three weeks. I'll post when I have something worth saying, which I suspect will be fairly often.

The photos on this site - the background, the header and the slightly-too-serious picture of me on the front page - were all taken by my friend Simon Stacey, who was extremely patient while I worked out what to do with my hands. Any lack of photogenic quality is entirely mine.

If you've arrived here because you need something written, edited or proofread, the contact page is the place to go. If you've arrived here by accident, welcome anyway. Put the kettle on and have a look around.