Julia Hailes MBE

Sustainability Pioneer

Eco-holidays in Trelowarren (Sep07)

There can’t be many things more exhilarating than surfing – or body boarding to be more precise. Watching the huge waves rolling towards me, I was among a throng of fellow surfers at Polzeath, poised to catch the best roller, so I could skim on its back towards the shore. The wonderful thing about surfing […]

See Telegraph Blogs (Sept07)

September 2007 to October 2008 My Blogs are being posted on Telegraph Blogs. Please look there for the most recent editions! September 2007 onwards are exclusively on the Telegraph Blogs site.   Blogs from this time have been transferred to my website.  

Getting into the swim (Sep07)

Last year I didn’t have a proper holiday – a couple of days camping in the rain in Cornwall. In fact I can’t remember when I last had a holiday in the sun. So this year’s family trip to stay with friends in the South of France was really exciting – the first week in […]

The New Green Consumer Guide

Writing The New Green Consumer Guide, which was published in 2007, nearly 20 years on from the original Green Consumer Guide, made me realise how much has changed in the intervening period.  In 1988 green issues were moving our of the fringe into the mainstream, but in the more recent edition, the challenge was to […]

Gay Times – I interviewed Kristin Digby (Sep07)

One of three interviews I did for the Gay Times – Kristin Digby . See also Peter Tatchell and Paul O-Grady “I don’t even know how to read a f***ing fuel bill”, Kristian admitted when I asked him to tell me how much electricity and gas he was using.   I arrived at his house somewhere […]

Gay Times – Peter Tatchell (Sep07)

One of three interviews I did for the Gay Times – Peter Tatchell. See also Paul O-Grady and Kristin Digby  With piles of paper balanced precariously almost to the ceiling (it reminded me of Dr Seuss’s Cat in the Hat), Peter’s flat is not only his home but his campaign headquarters too.  Animal rights, human rights, […]

Gay Times – I interviewed Paul O-Grady and Peter Tatchell (Sep07)

I interviewed three prominent Gay men for the Gay Times Eco Issue in September 2007 –  Peter Tatchell (campaigner), Paul O’Grady (comedian) a.k.a as Lily Savage and Kristin Digby (TV presenter), who sadly died a couple of years later.  Peter Tatchell was very green, but Paul O-Grady wasn’t ashamed of his super-size aga and TV.  His best […]

Gay Times – I interviewed Paul O’Grady – aka Lily Savage (Sep07)

“I’ve never known anyone make so much fuss about three light bulbs” Paul said as we laughed uproariously in his kitchen.  I’d pointed out that there were more lights in just half his kitchen than Peter Tatchell had in his whole flat.  Then I saw more lighting above the aga.  “Only one” Paul says.  So I peered underneath the mantel and discovered there were three!

Holiday dilemma: fly or drive? (Jul07)

My family are going to stay with friends in the South of France for our summer holiday. But how should we get there? We’re going by ferry and by car. In theory this is greener than going by plane – that was certainly part of my thinking when I planned the trip. But I’m not […]

Happy as a pig in mud (Jul07)

The bacon tasted really good. The superior rashers accompanied seared scallops – a first course served by the Royal Oak pub in Bishopstone. I was having dinner with fellow members of the Food Ethics Council after a trip to see Helen Browning’s happy organic pigs. It was their cousins I was eating for dinner. It […]