James Stewart
@itsjamesstewart.bsky.social
Journalist writing for The Times/Sunday Times, FT and others. Freelance Writer of the Year 2024 & 2020, Travel Writer of the Year 2021. Saltwater for blood
https://www.james-stewart.com
https://www.james-stewart.com
Pinned
Cuts, contacts and all my good stuff is here at james-stewart.com. Well, some of my good stuff
It couldn’t possibly be because every print media outlet bar one now stokes said wars for clicks, obviously
www.thetimes.com/article/c308...
www.thetimes.com/article/c308...
Britons becoming increasingly divided over ‘culture wars’
Survey finds that young people are also losing a sense of pride in the UK and that a majority of people believe life was better in the past
www.thetimes.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:34 AM
It couldn’t possibly be because every print media outlet bar one now stokes said wars for clicks, obviously
www.thetimes.com/article/c308...
www.thetimes.com/article/c308...
This story is such a wild ride. Pure hubris. Cracking digital storytelling too ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...
End of The Line: how Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream unravelled
Mohammed bin Salman’s utopian city was undone by the laws of physics and finance
ig.ft.com
November 6, 2025 at 9:36 AM
This story is such a wild ride. Pure hubris. Cracking digital storytelling too ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...
"Who is telling me this and why? How do I know they’re who they say they are? How plausible is what I’m being told? What can I do to check?"
This story is pure cringe for the Times newsroom
pressgazette.co.uk/news/times-j...
This story is pure cringe for the Times newsroom
pressgazette.co.uk/news/times-j...
Times journalists urged to make 'basic' checks after two 'humiliating' hoaxes
A newsroom boss at The Times has described two fake interviews it ran as "humiliating" and said "basic" questions were not asked.
pressgazette.co.uk
November 3, 2025 at 11:53 AM
"Who is telling me this and why? How do I know they’re who they say they are? How plausible is what I’m being told? What can I do to check?"
This story is pure cringe for the Times newsroom
pressgazette.co.uk/news/times-j...
This story is pure cringe for the Times newsroom
pressgazette.co.uk/news/times-j...
You hear so much about quiet luxury and meaningful travel now that the riotous bad taste when the pendulum swings the other way in a few years is going to be quite something to see
October 15, 2025 at 4:12 PM
You hear so much about quiet luxury and meaningful travel now that the riotous bad taste when the pendulum swings the other way in a few years is going to be quite something to see
When I asked Google AI about winter fauna in the UK. Clever ole internet
October 8, 2025 at 8:18 AM
When I asked Google AI about winter fauna in the UK. Clever ole internet
My bit in today's FT on robo-legs, testing exoskeleton tech in Wales with a little help from ai and Edmund Hillary www.ft.com/content/825e...
I am Robohiker! — testing the exoskeleton that promises to take hikers further, faster
Wearing the Hypershell, the Welsh mountains are like a walk in the park — but is it cheating?
www.ft.com
October 4, 2025 at 2:50 PM
My bit in today's FT on robo-legs, testing exoskeleton tech in Wales with a little help from ai and Edmund Hillary www.ft.com/content/825e...
I bought the insurance policy an hour ago. This doesn't bode well
October 1, 2025 at 2:38 PM
I bought the insurance policy an hour ago. This doesn't bode well
Funny old job, this. I spent yesterday playing Robocop on a Welsh mountain to test a new exoskeleton from Hypershell. Carbon fibre & titanium, motors to lift legs, ai tech to sense terrain. E-biking for your legs basically. (Image legs not mine obvs)
September 26, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Funny old job, this. I spent yesterday playing Robocop on a Welsh mountain to test a new exoskeleton from Hypershell. Carbon fibre & titanium, motors to lift legs, ai tech to sense terrain. E-biking for your legs basically. (Image legs not mine obvs)
This story is such a wild ride.
On a side note, it slightly narks that AI has properly done for the em dash www.cityam.com/mass-halluci...
On a side note, it slightly narks that AI has properly done for the em dash www.cityam.com/mass-halluci...
Mass hallucinations: In search of the rogue AI reporters
How a pitch about warring London chicken shops led Steve Dinneen on a journey from Chicago to Kenya in search of a rogue AI reporter
www.cityam.com
September 1, 2025 at 10:59 AM
This story is such a wild ride.
On a side note, it slightly narks that AI has properly done for the em dash www.cityam.com/mass-halluci...
On a side note, it slightly narks that AI has properly done for the em dash www.cityam.com/mass-halluci...
From a PR: "We’d be delighted to explore a collaboration with you – offering a 7-night luxury stay in exchange for editorial content that captures the unique atmosphere of the resort that aligns with your creative vision"
Travel journalism has certainly changed since I got into this game
Travel journalism has certainly changed since I got into this game
August 29, 2025 at 8:56 AM
From a PR: "We’d be delighted to explore a collaboration with you – offering a 7-night luxury stay in exchange for editorial content that captures the unique atmosphere of the resort that aligns with your creative vision"
Travel journalism has certainly changed since I got into this game
Travel journalism has certainly changed since I got into this game
Safari was a tourism problem. In my jeep at Sri Lanka's Yala a visitor was reduced to tears by 15-20 jeeps jostling for position around a lone honey bear. Is this really what we want from tourism. The wildlife certainly doesn't want it
www.thetimes.com/travel/inspi...
www.thetimes.com/travel/inspi...
Tourists with cameras are now as bad as the trophy hunters
Video of safari vehicles blocking wildebeest in Tanzania has prompted outrage. It’s about time, says Chris Haslam
www.thetimes.com
August 4, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Safari was a tourism problem. In my jeep at Sri Lanka's Yala a visitor was reduced to tears by 15-20 jeeps jostling for position around a lone honey bear. Is this really what we want from tourism. The wildlife certainly doesn't want it
www.thetimes.com/travel/inspi...
www.thetimes.com/travel/inspi...
I've done many silly things in this job: slept on a glorified campbed off a Welsh cliff or attempted a ski-jump and backflip (I didn't ski). Wearing a plastic puffin on my head was a first though.
Worth a click, this one, if only for the cracking little video
www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/desti...
Worth a click, this one, if only for the cracking little video
www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/desti...
‘The trick to puffin snorkelling is nonchalance’: Britain’s most exciting wildlife experience
Our writer headed to Skomer Island in Pembrokeshire, the ‘Welsh Galapagos’, to experience the biggest puffin count on record
www.telegraph.co.uk
June 27, 2025 at 9:27 AM
I've done many silly things in this job: slept on a glorified campbed off a Welsh cliff or attempted a ski-jump and backflip (I didn't ski). Wearing a plastic puffin on my head was a first though.
Worth a click, this one, if only for the cracking little video
www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/desti...
Worth a click, this one, if only for the cracking little video
www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/desti...
The volume of junk press releases I get now is insane; asking if I'm doing music kit round-ups, releases on mini-fans or just now charcoal-free hookahs. I write about travel.
Most is digital marketing – untargeted spray + pray – and the c.100 emails I get a day are nothing compared to editors 1/2
Most is digital marketing – untargeted spray + pray – and the c.100 emails I get a day are nothing compared to editors 1/2
June 26, 2025 at 9:51 AM
The volume of junk press releases I get now is insane; asking if I'm doing music kit round-ups, releases on mini-fans or just now charcoal-free hookahs. I write about travel.
Most is digital marketing – untargeted spray + pray – and the c.100 emails I get a day are nothing compared to editors 1/2
Most is digital marketing – untargeted spray + pray – and the c.100 emails I get a day are nothing compared to editors 1/2
Slow handclap for the Times' strategists, trashing the paper's brand for a pathetic hit-job and a few extra clicks.
Readers BTL are furious at being taken for fools
Readers BTL are furious at being taken for fools
June 24, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Slow handclap for the Times' strategists, trashing the paper's brand for a pathetic hit-job and a few extra clicks.
Readers BTL are furious at being taken for fools
Readers BTL are furious at being taken for fools
If comments BTL from FT readers are any guide, Rachel Reeves, having pissed off pensioners has now royally pissed off workers. Everyone is pissed off. Slow handclap.
Also if pensioners can’t afford to lose £200pa WFA it suggests they badly failed to plan for retirement? www.ft.com/content/bdf3...
Also if pensioners can’t afford to lose £200pa WFA it suggests they badly failed to plan for retirement? www.ft.com/content/bdf3...
Rachel Reeves to restore UK winter fuel payments to most pensioners
Chancellor’s U-turn means about 2mn pensioners will lose annual subsidy of up to £300
www.ft.com
June 9, 2025 at 6:54 PM
If comments BTL from FT readers are any guide, Rachel Reeves, having pissed off pensioners has now royally pissed off workers. Everyone is pissed off. Slow handclap.
Also if pensioners can’t afford to lose £200pa WFA it suggests they badly failed to plan for retirement? www.ft.com/content/bdf3...
Also if pensioners can’t afford to lose £200pa WFA it suggests they badly failed to plan for retirement? www.ft.com/content/bdf3...
Reposted by James Stewart
“A Busy, Busy Day at the Airport”
By @rubenbolling.bsky.social, after Richard Scarry.
Genius.
Click in.
By @rubenbolling.bsky.social, after Richard Scarry.
Genius.
Click in.
June 6, 2025 at 10:07 PM
“A Busy, Busy Day at the Airport”
By @rubenbolling.bsky.social, after Richard Scarry.
Genius.
Click in.
By @rubenbolling.bsky.social, after Richard Scarry.
Genius.
Click in.
They say travel broadens the mind but it's interesting how the best pieces for engagement are on destinations that readers already know: 153 comments and counting for my bit on Monday about Herefordshire www.thetimes.com/travel/desti...
What I learnt about Englishness in this bafflingly undervalued region
Forget the Cotswolds — further west is equally lovely Herefordshire, untroubled by coach tours and overtourism. A new ebike tour shows off its best bits
www.thetimes.com
June 4, 2025 at 9:43 AM
They say travel broadens the mind but it's interesting how the best pieces for engagement are on destinations that readers already know: 153 comments and counting for my bit on Monday about Herefordshire www.thetimes.com/travel/desti...
My bit in the FT this weekend about Bornholm, which for an islophile like me felt pretty close to paradise www.ft.com/content/4edf...
In search of utopia on Denmark’s sunshine island
Every June, the country’s political elite quit Copenhagen to ‘listen and reflect’ on the dreamy island of Bornholm — and it’s a treat for holidaymakers too
www.ft.com
May 27, 2025 at 8:53 AM
My bit in the FT this weekend about Bornholm, which for an islophile like me felt pretty close to paradise www.ft.com/content/4edf...
Just went on X for the first time in... well, a long time.
Anyway. Jesus. What a shitshow that place is
Anyway. Jesus. What a shitshow that place is
May 25, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Just went on X for the first time in... well, a long time.
Anyway. Jesus. What a shitshow that place is
Anyway. Jesus. What a shitshow that place is
A short message to every hotel that moans it never gets any coverage: perhaps provide a media contact on the website?
Thanks for reading
Thanks for reading
May 21, 2025 at 10:04 AM
A short message to every hotel that moans it never gets any coverage: perhaps provide a media contact on the website?
Thanks for reading
Thanks for reading
This is such a basic fail of good journalism. There's a massive opp for the BBC to claim the role of trusted source among partial media and AI slop, yet News keeps doing shit like this. See Chris Mason's silly "You've sold out fishing" y'day or plans to create an AI dept offering personalised news
BBC have interviewed this woman as a business spokesperson, she rants about Brexit aspirations being stolen, they forgot to mention she is a Reform spokesperson and was a Brexit party MEP
May 20, 2025 at 9:52 AM
This is such a basic fail of good journalism. There's a massive opp for the BBC to claim the role of trusted source among partial media and AI slop, yet News keeps doing shit like this. See Chris Mason's silly "You've sold out fishing" y'day or plans to create an AI dept offering personalised news
Now THIS is how you do a hotel swimming pool
May 7, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Now THIS is how you do a hotel swimming pool
I've just arrived for a travel job 24hr too early. Every journalist leaves reading itinerary emails till the last minute but FFS
April 28, 2025 at 4:51 PM
I've just arrived for a travel job 24hr too early. Every journalist leaves reading itinerary emails till the last minute but FFS