Gillian Thornton | Travelwriters UK

Travel writer and photographer

Writing was only ever meant to be a hobby, but after 40 years as a busy freelance, I regard my surprise career change as a very happy accident. After training as a bilingual PA at the Institut Français in London, I worked for various multinational companies whilst writing and selling articles in my spare time.

So when I was unexpectedly made redundant, I took the plunge and went freelance as a writer. Soon I was a regular contributor of personality interviews, lifestyle features and travel pieces to women’s magazines and regional publications. In 1998, a couple of chance conversations persuaded me to concentrate on travel writing, and over the last 20 years, I’ve become an established specialist on French destinations. But I also write on the UK, wider Europe, and beyond, most recently Canada, South Africa and the Mekong.

Today I’m a regular contributor of features and images to specialist travel magazines, general interest publications, and women’s titles, as well as an award-winning travel review website for the over-50s. I have undertaken a number of original brochure writing jobs in English for French regional tourist boards and I also translate French tourism texts into English.

I live in Hertfordshire, less than 30 minutes from London by train, and with easy access to all London airports, Eurostar services, and major motorway links.

SPECIALITIES

France for sure, but I also write extensively about UK destinations, including short breaks, days out, and heritage attractions. History and heritage are a passion of mine, but so too are walking holidays, city breaks, nature and soft adventure. And having somehow slipped over the half-century mark without noticing it, I also write widely for the over-50s. My French is fluent and I have rusty Italian A-level and even rustier German O-level. I’m a member of the British Guild of Travel Writers, serving two three-year terms on the Board.

MARKETS

I write travel features for France Today magazine, My Weekly, The People’s Friend, Cruise and Travel, Saga, This England, and Good Times (on board magazine for Condor Ferries). Online, you’ll find me on www.silvertraveladvisor.com, www.thegoodlifefrance.com as well as at www.thetravelmagazine.net.

BEST TRAVEL EXPERIENCES

Every trip delivers something good, but highlights for me have included watching brown bears in the forest of Northern Finland and whales in the north Atlantic, paragliding in the French Alps and floating in a balloon over the river Loire. I’ve ridden over the Icelandic lava fields on a horse with a five-speed gearbox, and seen flamingos from the saddle in the lagoons of the Camargue. But every day out has the potential to be something special, even on my doorstep. You just have to keep your eyes open…

AWARDS

I’m an honorary Chevalier de la Commanderie du Saulte Bouchon Champenois – the Champagne brotherhood of Aube-en-Champagne. It was presented amidst great ceremony and blowing of trumpets as an unexpected thank you for many articles written on the area. So of course I’ve sworn to drink champagne whenever I can and never to say a bad word about it!

In 2017, I was shortlisted in the French Travel Media Awards, Cultural category, for an article about Fontevraud Abbey that appeared in Voyage magazine. In 2018, I went one better and won the Best Cultural Article with a piece on the new replica cave at Lascaux in the Dordogne, published in France Today.

PHOTOGRAPHIC EXAMPLES