Newspapers and Agency

Iain went to journalism college in Cardiff, joining the Bridport and Lyme Regis News as a cub reporter in the early 1980s. Prior to that he had freelanced as a movie reviewer and reporter for newspapers in Portsmouth. By 1990 he was the Defence Reporter of the Evening Herald, Plymouth, subsequently covering operations to liberate Kuwait (1990/91), the break up of the Soviet Union (1991/93) and the Royal Navy’s operations in the Adriatic (1992/94). Iain also filed stories from Northern Ireland, Latvia, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Berlin, Italy, Croatia and Bosnia. He was also the Chief Reporter of the Evening Herald and a member of the News Desk staff. Iain joined the UK News agency as its London-based Defence and Diplomatic Correspondent (1995/96). Tasked with reporting from Whitehall on news stories emanating from the Ministry of Defence and Foreign Office, he also covered the Bosnia Peace Conference.

Since the 1990s, Iain has contributed on a freelance basis to the Sunday Telegraph, Scotland-on-Sunday, the Mail-on-Sunday, Daily Mirror and Sunday Express, working via agencies or under the direction of staff reporters on those newspapers. His by-lined work has frequently appeared in the Western Morning News, including reports on Royal Navy counter-terrorism work in the Arabian Gulf (2008). Iain has also in recent years appeared as a defence expert, commenting on various topics for regional BBC TV, BBC Radio and ITV.