Examples of writing -

From CPS News
By Frances Griss

ONE OF the North's most notorious murderers went to the gallows in 1873 convicted of the poisoning of one little boy, but history has branded her the killer of fifteen children and five adults.

Mary Ann Cotton used arsenic to dispose of anyone who stood in the way of what she wanted and was immortalised in a children’s rhyme before she was hanged on March 24, 1873 in Durham.

Forensic science, then in its infancy, played a part in her downfall, as did the rumour machine which whipped up a frenzy and meant the outcome of her trial was almost a foregone conclusion.

Mary, following a familiar pattern, moved to West Auckland in 1871 and started on a course of action which was to be her undoing.

ithin months of arriving the family was much smaller. Her husband, Frederick Cotton, had died of gastric fever, as had his eldest son from a previous marriage, a boy of ten also called Frederick.

he couple’s new baby, Robert, was also dead, which left only Mary and Frederick’s seven-year-old son, Charles.

From Business Eco - the Northern Echo's regular supplement
By Frances Griss

MOST small businesses would probably say they were too busy just doing the essentials to worry about saving the world, but mention that it could increase their profitability and their ears will certainly prick up.

Energy efficiency is not as glamorous as landing a big new client, but it can have the same effect on the bottom line - month in and month out.

Advisors from Action Energy reckon they can save a company one fifth of its fuel bill without changing the quality of life for people working there. Suggestions can be as simple as cleaning light fittings and removing bulbs that are then not needed.

During the last year David Morgan, project co-ordinator or action energy, estimates he has given advice to around 250 small businesses which could have saved them a total of £300,000 if every suggestion was carried out.

Across the region this extrapolates to millions of pounds every year being wasted and tonnes of carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere to fuel global warming.

From Christmas Wish, a seasonal supplement
By Frances Griss

THE SECRET to enjoying Christmas is planning. Where is the enjoyment of spending Christmas morning in the kitchen slaving over a huge meal when the rest of the family are in the park on their new bikes?

Make sure you leave time for everyone to enjoy themselves by making sure everyone pulls their weight.

Younger children can help tidy up the mess of wrapping paper while older ones could prepare vegetables, set the table or make beds, or all three!

Fundamental to planning is not letting Christmas creep up on you because you are too involved with something else.

rapping presents as you buy them, or at least having a good session several weeks beforehand prevents a last minute panic on this job, which can take a surprisingly long time. It also gives you a chance to fit batteries to children's toys to make sure they work as soon as the wrapping comes off.

Used in The Journal business magazine
By John Dean

IMAGINE two starkly contrasting scenarios. One is a vision of Hell; clouds of fumes belch from an industrial plant, the air is thick with an evil fug which wrinkles the nostrils and toxic liquids leech insidiously into the earth to create a well of poisons which destroy all life.

In the second scenario, lapwing and ringed plover pick their way across scrubland covered in grass, wildflowers and newly planted trees, and the air is filled with the sweet song of skylarks.

On the face of it these scenarios have nothing in common yet the second one challenges the traditional thinking represented by the first because, remarkably, they are the same site.

If 10 years ago you told the people of Jarrow and Hebburn that skylarks would one day sing above Monkton Cokeworks they would have dismissed the thought but the renaissance of the site is a testament to the skills which the region has pioneered in bringing poisoned industrial sites back to life.

From the Northern Echo's business magazine
By John Dean

IT is probably the fastest growing economy in the world - and China’s staggering expansion is creating major opportunities for businesses five and a half thousand miles away in North-East England.

Indeed, the region is one of the most successful in Britain when it comes to forging the links which are crucial to winning new business in sectors including pipework systems, manufacturing, computer software and web design.

The key to China's transformation from Third World economy to industrial superpower was the decision of its Communist leaders less than two decades ago to embrace the West, reversing decades of government policy.

Suspicion was replaced with a growing willingness to allow western businesses into China and that process has accelerated rapidly over the last decade.

At the head of the queue have been huge Western and Japanese corporations wishing to invest in joint ventures in an economy which has grown eight per cent a year for the last decade - and much higher in cities like Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai.

But in the North-East, the emphasis has not been on mighty corporations, rather SMEs employing less than 250 people, some with only a dozen or so workers on their books, who have been brave enough to take on the challenges presented by trading with China.

Used in the Dalesman
By John Dean

SITTING in Kilmeny Fane-Saunders’ living room and talking about her life is a surreal - and deeply troubling - experience. Outside, the early winter calm has settled on the countryside and the trees are shrouded in mist, inside the fire crackles in the grate and we sip coffee and nibble biscuits - while she talks of dead bodies, terrible injuries, traumatised children and emergency helicopters landing on the lawn.

The reason for such stories is that Kilmeny lives on the B1257 Stokesley to Helmsley road on the North York Moors, which has been turned into nothing short of a race-track by motorcyclists who hurtle along its straights and round its corners at speeds of up to 160mph.

hen they fall off outside Kilmeny's front gate, she and her family end up dealing with the bloody aftermath.

She is one of the leading members of Bilsdale Against Noise and Danger (BAND), which was set up in May last year to campaign against the abuse of the road by the motorcyclists, many of whom come because of editorials in biking magazines and on websites.