Susie Boniface
{{short description|English journalist and author|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2018}}
Susie Boniface (born {{birth based on age as of date|42|2019|3|6|noage=1}} in Tonbridge,[http://www.ceg.com.pl/forum/susie-boniface-partner-54b147 susie boniface partner] Retrieved 16/4/21. Kent) is an English journalist and author who has written for several newspapers and uses the pseudonym Fleet Street Fox in her Daily Mirror column and on Twitter. She used the name Lillys Miles while writing an anonymous blog, but revealed her identity when her book Diaries of a Fleet Street Fox was published in 2013.
Early life
Susie Boniface was born in {{birth based on age as of date |42|2019|3|6|noage=1}}. She became interested in journalism in 1989 after the fall of the Berlin Wall and then reading Bluff Your Way in Journalism (1988) by Nigel Foster.{{Cite web|last=Mayhew|first=Freddy|date=6 March 2019|title=Fleet Street Fox rewrites journalism history in new bluffer's guide to industry|url=https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/fleet-street-fox-rewrites-journalism-history-in-new-bluffers-guide-to-industry/|access-date=16 September 2020|website=Press Gazette|language=en-US}}
Career
Aged 18, Boniface became a reporter at the Kent and Sussex Courier. She later worked at the Plymouth Herald as defence reporter.{{Cite news|date=12 February 2013|title=Fleet Street Fox is former Plymouth Herald reporter Susie Boniface|work=The Herald|location=Plymouth|url=http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Fleet-Street-Fox-Plymouth-Herald-reporter-Susie/story-18125001-detail/story.html|access-date=15 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924074727/http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Fleet-Street-Fox-Plymouth-Herald-reporter-Susie/story-18125001-detail/story.html|archive-date=24 September 2015}} She then joined the Sunday Mirror, where she worked for ten years, until she volunteered for redundancy in March 2012.{{Cite web|last=Burrell|first=Ian|date=28 May 2012|title=Ian Burrell: The internet Antichrist who is converting online|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/opinion/ian-burrell-the-internet-antichrist-who-is-converting-online-evangelists-7792779.html|access-date=16 September 2020|website=The Independent|language=en}} As of 2013, she was a freelance reporter at BBC, Bella, the Daily Express the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, the Daily Star Sunday, The Guardian, The People, The Sun, Reveal and the Press Association.
Boniface joined the journalism department as a visiting lecturer at City, University of London in 2016.{{Cite web|last=@fleetstreetfox|date=26 July 2016|title=Thrilled to announce in September I'll be joining @CityUniLondon as Visiting Lecturer in journalism! #QuakeYe cc @SarahJLonsdale|url=https://twitter.com/fleetstreetfox/status/757856617538859009|access-date=16 September 2020|website=Twitter|language=en}}{{Cite web|date=7 November 2018|title=City journalists among most respected in UK|url=https://www.city.ac.uk/news/2018/november/city-journalists-among-most-respected-in-uk|access-date=16 September 2020|website=City, University of London|language=en}}
She has written the Bluffer's Guide To Social Media (2015),{{Cite web|last=McIver|first=Brian|date=24 December 2015|title=Fleet Street Fox's tips on making the most of online sites and avoiding danger|url=http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/blogger-fleet-street-fox-social-7065709|access-date=16 September 2020|website=Daily Record}} the Bluffer's Guide to Journalism (2019) and Exposed: The Secret History of Britain's Nuclear Experiments (2024).{{Cite web|date=29 November 2024|title=Exposed: The Secret History of Britain's Nuclear Experiments|url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Exposed-History-Britains-Nuclear-Experiments/dp/1036121003|access-date=7 February 2025|website=Amazon}}
= Fleet Street Fox =
Boniface began her first anonymous blog, now removed, in April 2009{{Citation needed|date=September 2020}} and started tweeting as fleetstreetfox in October 2009.{{cite web|last=fleetstreetfox|date=26 October 2009|title=has it come to this? Is life not inane enough?|url=https://twitter.com/fleetstreetfox/statuses/5178923330|access-date=16 September 2020|publisher=Twitter}} She started a second news-based blog as Fleet Street Fox in 2011.{{cite web|url=http://www.fleetstreetfox.com|title=fleet street fox|publisher=}} She revealed her name in The Times in 2013{{cite news|last=Boniface|first=Susie|date=11 February 2013|title=Confessions of the woman behind @fleetstreetfox|work=The Times|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/confessions-of-the-woman-behind-fleetstreetfox-gk0v8sckkpj|access-date=16 September 2020}}{{Cite news|last=Higham|first=Nick|author-link=Nick Higham|date=21 February 2013|title=Meet the Author: Susie Boniface|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/av/entertainment-arts-21536399|access-date=16 September 2020}} at the same time as her book was published by Constable & Robinson, though her identity was not a closely kept secret before then;{{cite news|last=Magnanti|first=Brooke|authorlink=Brooke Magnanti|date=12 February 2013|title=Fleet Street Fox: anonymity was crucial to my freedom|work=The Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/9865295/Fleet-Street-Fox-anonymity-was-crucial-to-my-freedom.html|access-date=16 September 2020}} she had been named on Twitter at least once in May 2012 after an argument with Jemima Khan.{{Cite web|last=Godwin|first=Richard|date=11 May 2012|title=Revealed: The secret Twitter stars getting themselves into a web of|url=http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/esmagazine/revealed-the-secret-twitter-stars-getting-themselves-into-a-web-of-mischief-7733407.html|access-date=16 September 2020|website=Evening Standard|language=en}}{{cite news|url=http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/02/11/so-susie-boniface-is-fleet-street-fox-what-a-surprise/|title=So Susie Boniface is 'Fleet Street Fox': what a surprise|first=Andy|last=McSmith|date=11 February 2013|work=The Independent Blogs|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130214010022/http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/02/11/so-susie-boniface-is-fleet-street-fox-what-a-surprise/|archive-date=14 February 2013|url-status=dead}}
Julie Burchill praised her blogging in the British Journalism Review, but said of the book, "I hated it."{{cite journal|last=Burchill|first=Julie|date=2013|title=Not fleet, not foxy, not funny|url=http://www.bjr.org.uk/data/2013/no2_burchill|journal=British Journalism Review|volume=24|issue=2|pages=70–71|doi=10.1177/095647480813492477|s2cid=147512564|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307202920/http://www.bjr.org.uk/data/2013/no2_burchill|archive-date=7 March 2016}} Broadcaster Jeremy Vine described it as "the first book I've read that starts at 90mph and speeds up".{{cite web|url=http://www.fleetstreetfox.com/p/book.html|title=Books|publisher=}}{{Secondary source needed|date=September 2020}}
= Nuclear Testing investigations =
Boniface has investigated the 1950s British nuclear weapons tests in Australia and reported on the veterans' campaign for justice in the Daily Mirror for 20 years. In 2018 she launched a campaign for a Nuclear Test Medal to recognise the service of personnel.{{Cite web|date=29 November 2024|title=Exposed: The Secret History of Britain's Nuclear Experiments|url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Exposed-History-Britains-Nuclear-Experiments/dp/1036121003|access-date=7 February 2025|website=Amazon}}
She contributed to the 2024 BBC documentary Britain’s Nuclear Bomb Scandal after attaining an "earth shattering document" containing evidence of blood tests that the Ministry of Defence had claimed it did not have.{{Cite web|date=18 November 2024|title="It was proof the MoD had been lying all this time"|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0k5b341|access-date=7 February 2025|website=BBC}}
Awards
Boniface was nominated in the Campaign of the Year category of the 2009 British Press Awards for "British Nuclear Test Vets".{{Cite news|last=Ponsford|first=Dominic|date=25 February 2009|title=Press Gazette British Press Awards 2009: The shortlist|work=Press Gazette|url=http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/node/43183|access-date=25 February 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203092246/http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/node/43183|archive-date=3 February 2014}} She won third "must follow journo" in the 2011 CRAPPs awards as Fleet Street Fox.{{Cite web|date=December 2011|title=News-Bite: CRAPP winners announced|url=http://www.espressoprnews.com/article/news-bite-crapp-winners-announced/|access-date=16 September 2020|website=esPResso}} Fleet Street Fox won the London Press Club Blog of the Year in 2013.{{Cite news|last=Deans|first=Jason|date=22 May 2013|title=BBC Newsnight journalists win award for spiked Jimmy Savile investigation|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/may/22/jimmy-savile-scandal-scoop-year-press-club|access-date=16 September 2020|issn=0261-3077}} She was nominated for Columnist of the Year (popular press) in the 2014 Society of Editors Press Awards.{{Cite web|date=28 February 2014|title=Sunday Times leads the way as nominations announced for Society of Editors Press Awards|url=https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/sunday-times-leads-way-nominations-announced-society-editors-press-awards/|access-date=16 September 2020|website=Press Gazette|language=en-US}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Official website|https://www.susieboniface.com/}}
- [http://www.fleetstreetfox.com/ Fleet Street Fox blog]
- [http://www.thelostlectures.com/talk/anonymity-foxs-tale/ Susie Boniface: 'Anonymity: A Fox's Tale'], The Lost Lectures
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Category:English women journalists
Category:English women columnists
Category:People from Tonbridge
Category:21st-century English journalists
Category:21st-century English women writers