Harriet Marsden

The Independent • 21st January 2021

The Birdman of the Tower of London and the missing ravens

Nothing in Edgar Allan Poe’s majestic poem The Raven prepares you for their smell. But Christopher James Skaife, Yeoman Warder and Ravenmaster of the Tower of London, knows it only too well. “Ravens are quite smelly, especially babies, it’s quite pungent, and I only have a small house tucked into the walls of the Tower of London … the ravens like to walk around our house, and they poo everywhere. That was the first thing my wife moaned about.”

Positive News • 26th October 2020

Moving the goalposts: the footballers using their influence for good

Of all the scapegoats in the Covid-19 pandemic, footballers were the most predictable. The health secretary Matt Hancock suggested they should “play their part” by taking pay cuts. MP Julian Knight, chair of the department for digital, culture, media and sport, condemned millionaire players taking full pay while non-playing staff were furloughed.

Tortoise • 13th August 2020

Across the universe

Some historians are thinking big – and they want the rest of us to do likewise. Harriet Marsden reports In the beginning there was David Christian, a Brooklyn-born teacher and originally a scholar of Russian history. In 1989 he was hired to teach a general history introduction at Macquarie University, Sydney, and developed a multidisciplinary course collaborating with colleagues from other academic fields. He called it “Big History”. Biology, physics, geology, politics, history, anthropology,

The Independent • 26th February 2020

How we’ve failed to stop the international tiger trade

Tyger Tyger, burning bright/ In the forests of the night. Perhaps no longer. Since William Blake wrote his most famous poem, an estimated 96 per cent of wild tigers have disappeared. There are fewer than 4,000 left.

The Independent • 8th February 2020

Child sex abuse, corruption and cover-ups: How football can and must move on from its darkest time

Andrew Woodward has no idea how many times he was raped as a child. In November 2016, the ex-footballer waived his right to anonymity and revealed that he had been a victim of sexual abuse for more than six years in the 1980s. The one-time Crewe Alexandra defender named his former coach, a convicted paedophile who police would later say had “almost an insatiable appetite” for young boys: Barry Bennell.

indy100 • 1st February 2020

I went to Nigel Farage's booze-free Brexit celebration with a bottle of vodka and an open mind

They’re certainly not the only European voices I’ll hear through the night, along with American, Japanese and – more surprisingly – Irish, but the crowd is overwhelmingly white and English. It’s a controlled vibe, not too much shoving, but there’s an underlying tension and a lot of angry shouting. That surprises me from a group of people so firmly convinced they have “won” their heart’s desire. There’s the odd waft of gunpowder and a smell of weed in the air. I hope it’s been through customs.

The Independent • 2nd December 2019

Even for Pussy Riot, gender equality must begin at home

In Pussy Riot, male members are in short supply. But while the Russian punk feminist collective does not have a defined list of participants, one man, Pyotr Verzilov, is usually included. The husband of Nadezhda “Nadya” Tolokonnikova (the group’s most famous member), is well known thanks to fighting with his wife while she was in prison, gatecrashing the 2018 football World Cup final in Russia and the fact that he was poisoned last year, allegedly by intelligence agents.

Tortoise • 15th November 2019

‘Wokeness’ nods off

The BBC’s identity correspondent Megha Mohan recently tweeted: “Note to editor; no-one in diverse circles uses the word “woke” anymore. In fact, it’s the clearest indication of the insular nature of their world if they file copy using it in 2019.” Or as an ABC foreign affairs reporter, pithily responded: “That word is whiter than frightened milk.”

The Independent • 20th October 2019

‘I could well die in here’: The story of Charlotte Nokes and the thousands still locked up on indefinite sentences

Life is fleeting, life is precious, and I have wasted too much time in oblivion. So wrote Charlotte Nokes while she was a prisoner at HMP Peterborough. She was originally sentenced to a minimum term of 15 months, but by the time she was found dead in her cell on 23 July 2016, she had served more than eight and a half years.

The Independent • 10th October 2019

‘This is not what we fought for’: The battle to end Iran’s ban on female football fans

When Iran beat Cambodia 14-0 in its home qualifier for the 2022 Qatar World Cup last night, only one corner of Tehran’s stadium cheered. A small section, ringed with metal fencing, was packed full of jubilant Iranian women, sporting painted faces and national flags. Hundreds more queued up outside. It was a pocket of celebration in a nearly empty stadium. Because for the first time in four decades, Iran had allowed women to buy tickets to a match. It was too late for Sahar Khodayari. Almost a m

The Independent • 2nd October 2019

Who knew storytelling would be so profitable? The success of Serial, five years on

Hae Min Lee was a typical high school student in Baltimore 1999. A popular Korean American girl, she was bright, pretty, romantic. On 13 January 1999, she was last seen driving from school to pick up her younger cousin. When she failed to turn up, her parents reported her missing. Police concluded that by that time, she was already dead.

The Independent • 24th August 2019

The first female American Airlines captain who piloted a flight on 9/11

Ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Bev speaking. There’s been a crisis in the United States and all of the US airspace is closed. We’re going to be landing our aeroplane in Gander, in Newfoundland...” On 11 September 2001, those words were spoken on a Boeing 777 somewhere over the north Atlantic. Bev was Beverley Bass, the first female captain in American Airlines history.

The Independent • 6th March 2018

International Women's Day: What are matriarchies, and where are they now?

There is a school of thought that believes human society was originally matriarchal. From around 1.5 million years ago, women were revered as priestesses and honoured for their ability to bear children. But somewhere around 3,000BC, the balance shifted, and – so scholars believe – society was thereafter dominated by men; the patriarchy was born.

The Independent • 6th May 2017

Ukip defends 'topless' candidate

Ukip appears to have announced an election candidate, and then tried to un-announce him once a photo emerged of him topless with the word ‘Ukip’ scrawled across his chest. George Connolly is still thought to be Ukip’s General Election parliamentary candidate for Wyre Forest in Worcestershire.

indy100 • 10th April 2017

UK, US and Germany have called on Russia to investigate a gay purge

There have been reports of a horrifying "gay purge" in Chechnya, Russia. The claims, originally published by Russian opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta and picked up by the Daily Mail, assert that authorities in the strictly Conservative Russian state have set up a Nazi-style concentration camp.

indy100 • 21st January 2017

It's time we all knew a little more about impeachment

In 2016, the concept of having Donald Trump as President of the United States seemed like an impossible future. But here we are. Well over 100 days in, and President Trump still remains in the White House. And Mar-a-Lago. And the Trump National Golf Club, Washington, D.C.  And the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.

The Sunday Times • 11th December 2016

Mourinho fined £1.2m for failing to declare payment

The Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has been fined by the Spanish tax authorities for failing to pay any tax on a remittance of more than £1m by his club to his agent, which he should have declared as a benefit in kind. Leaked documents reveal that tax inspectors last year demanded Mourinho pay £1.22m in unpaid tax and penalties after finding that he had failed to declare £1.4m in payments by his former club Real Madrid to his agent, Jorge Mendes.

The Sunday Times • 11th December 2016

Top clubs use ‘double agents’ to beat Revenue

Top British football clubs are routinely engaging in the controversial practice of hiring a player’s agent to work on both sides of the table during transfer negotiations. “Dual representation”, as it is known, is outlawed in many countries where it is suspected of being a smokescreen used by clubs and players to reduce tax on fees paid to agents.

The Sunday Times • 11th December 2016

Blair Jr at centre of silky tax move

Nick Blair was involved in a deal to move Hector Herrera to FC Porto in 2013 At the age of only 27, Tony Blair’s second son, Nick, made a spectacular entrance into the sharp-elbowed world of football agents three years ago when he helped to seal a multimillion-pound transfer deal.

The Sunday Times • 11th December 2016

A bit of wizardry can save stars hundreds of thousands

More than 180 football stars across the Premier League have set up companies that allow them to avoid millions of pounds of tax on income from their clubs. An investigation by The Sunday Times has found that the footballers — including the majority of the England squad — are taking advantage of an arrangement with the tax authorities to minimise their tax on “image rights” payments.