Austerity's poster girl in Southend

Good interview with cookery blogger Jack Monroe in the Evening Standard this week and a nice shot of her on the Southend seafront too. "Austerity's poster girl" gives some great answers to the criticism of Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail, pointing out she never chose to live on benefits, being forced to leave her job in a fire station because she couldn't work night shifts with a young baby. In fact through her blog agirlnamedjack.com she's now earning a living writing about food and has created her own job. A credit to the county and not deserving of nasty journalism. Click on the clink to read the interview in full.

Happy Jack in Southend

Great piece on Southend blogger Jack Monroe in the Guardian. She writes like a modern-day George Orwell about the psychological effects of poverty while living as a single mum on benefits in her blog agirlcalledjack.com. Her recipes on how to feed herself and your son on £10 a week were a huge hit too and are going to be published by Penguin, earning her a £25k advance (advances are split in to three chunks by the way and don't make you instantly rich). She's also now a trainee journalist at the Southend Echo and offers an inspiring tale on how to improve your life through the power of words. Click on the link to read.