Ben West has written on a wide variety of subjects for numerous newspapers and magazines including The Guardian , The Independent , the Daily Telegraph , The Times , the Daily Mail , Vogue and Reader’s Digest . Travel writing has taken him to more than 20 countries, including five in Africa, and his first trip to Cameroon netted him four tropical diseases. He was chief property correspondent of the Daily Express and the Sunday Express from 1999 to 2001, at which time penning one too many features on the joys of bungalow living became too much. His theatre show, Gertrude’s Secret , featuring a number of actors including Prunella Scales, Natalie Cassidy, Angela Griffin, James Alexandrou and Helen Fraser, has been touring   numerous London and regional UK theatres since September 2006.

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