About the author

Rich Cookson is a freelance writer and investigative journalist. He has been writing about social and environmental affairs for more than six years. After five years at The Big Issue (www.bigissue.com), he went freelance and his work has appeared in The Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk), The Independent (www.independent.co.uk), Internazionale (www.internazionale.it), and a wide range of regional and local papers and magazines. He has also contributed to programmes on national and local TV and radio.