Christabel Smith

Christabel has been a journalist since spilling coffee over a fellow passenger on the Cambridge to London train in the 1980s. Happily for her (less so for his suit), the passenger was a publisher seeking an editorial assistant and within a week of graduating, Christabel had started her first job on Parliament's in-house magazine. The question is, given the happy career that ensued, did that coffee cup jump – or was it pushed…?

From the House of Commons to the BBC, then H Bauer Publishing, where she became the editor of that's life! magazine. Of all the heartbreaking, life-enhancing true-life stories, Christabel's all-time favourite was Annabel, the pet turkey from Kent who loved Stilton at Christmas and hopped on the sofa to watch EastEnders when she heard the theme tune.

For nearly 20 years, Christabel has been a freelance writer of human-interest and lifestyle features, celebrity profiles, humorous first-person pieces, and fictional short stories. She's interviewed members of the Royal family, TV icons, Hollywood stars, gangland bosses and senior police officers (cops and robbers), so boredom at work is never an option. She's learnt that awe-inspiring stories are everywhere if you keep your ears open – and no two people ever tell the same tale.