My Career ... a potted history

I was a writer from a very young age. My first publication was the esteemed 'Girl's Own' which I produced for the Aldingbourne County Primary school, class of 1980. The copy was heavily inspired by Jackie Magazine, the horoscopes were written by my erstwhile best friend Heloise, and I took great pride in making sure that I got an issue out every week.

I had aspirations to being a journalist all through school and excelled at English - especially English Language - despite the best efforts of the girl who sat next to me all through the fourth and fifth year, and who delighted in throwing my pencil case out of the window when the teacher wasn't looking.

The Court Service & Trading Standards

I left school in 1987 and threw myself into earning money - in shops, a dull insurance company and then, at in 1989, Ipswich County Court. Although I didn't have much chance to indulge my creativity in that job, I decided to take A Levels at evening class, one of which was English Language and Literature. I passed the exams, and entertained ideas of going to university in 1992, but my then husband-to-be wouldn't hear of it so the idea was jettisoned and I got married instead.

I transferred to Cambridge County Court in 1993, and stayed there until 1995 when I decided to get out before we were turned into an 'Executive Agency' and found myself working for the Cambridgeshire Trading Standards Department. This was a great job, and I credit the job and the knowledge I gained there for my success rate in getting money back for faulty products and bad services over the years. My 'snotty letters' are legendary.

I returned to Ipswich in 1996 and went to work in Suffolk Trading Standards Department after a short while. I gained some good knowledge, and branched out into different areas of work, which included creating consumer leaflets, setting up 'Advice Surgeries' and writing the fledgeling Trading Standards Briefings.

Flag - and Beauty & Health Publishing

In 1999 I left the Trading Standards Service and after a few temorary assignments, including working for Flag, a design & communications agency, I was offered the position of Features Editor for Beauty & Health Publishing, in 2000. I had been working on my ambitions behind the scenes, and had been writing features for various online ventures, usually without any payment. After seeing my work - and my determination - they couldn't fail to offer me the job and I took to it like the proverbial duck to water...until I was made redundant in 2001.

Going it alone

I wanted to be a journalist more than ever, so I took my contacts, including my ex-employers, and won some freelance work, in addition to finding yet more temporary work to tide me over. Despite my best efforts, I had no choice but to return to full time office work in 2002, and after a couple more temporary positions I ended up working for the civil service again, in the Government Office for the East of England.

Back to the civil service...

I was promoted in 2004, and was an executive officer in the communications team, which was renamed too many times to mention, and I have no idea what they are calling it these days...I stayed there until September 2007, when I left GO East. I set up Sarah Clark Copywriting in October 2007.

I have a small group of regular clients, some of whom have been with me from the early days. I've been writing for Spa seekers since 2010, and along with editing and writing most of the content for Inspired Magazine these are my main clients. I also work on an ad-hoc basis for Oi Media, producing consumer healthcare articles and website copy for well known healthcare brands. I've also written occasional copy for branding company Ocean since 2008, working on cereal box packaging copy. I've been writing regular features for P3, a magazine for pharmacists, since 2009, and since 2008 have been working for PTS, a web company producing information-based wesbites on several subjects from beauty treatments to consumer law.

During 2010 I worked on travel articles for Tour Smart, and legal articles for Claims4free.

In my spare time...

In 2003 I passed a Diploma in Freelance & Feature Writing with Distinction, and a Level 2 Certificate in Vocational Paralegal Studies with Merit. Then, in 2004 I qualified as Reiki Practitioner.

I created my website 'Relentlessly Positive' in 2006, which averages 40000 hits a month..