Emily Driver

I am a journalist from Manchester currently training for the NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism with News Associates. I specialise in news, features, video and culture and my work spans local reporting, national newsrooms, and long-form criticism. 

I am currently on a rotating placement at the Daily Mirror, starting on the show-biz desk where I've produced real-time breaking stories, sourced original lines and contributed research. I am expected to rotate onto news and features, cover court and join the U-35's video team. 

At Southwark News, I reported breaking news across South London, produced short-form video, covered council and environmental issues, and wrote reviews. 

My interests include features, news-features, human interest, education, policy, video, investigative reporting and data. 

Daily Mirror •

Strictly’s Shirley shares heartbreaking reason she takes a whistle everywhere

Strictly Come Dancing head judge Shirley Ballas said she never leaves the house without a whistle around her neck – even when she’s taking her dog to the park – after enduring almost seven years of stalking trauma.

In a candid new episode of the Question the Default podcast released yesterday, the 65-year-old opened up to host Harry Corin about the long-lasting fear she still lives with following the relentless harassment campaign that targeted her and her family.

“I don’t think I ever go outs...
North West Londoner •

Marriage rates fall below half of adults for third consecutive year | North West Londoner %

A truth no longer universally acknowledged: fewer than half of adults in England and Wales are married for the third year running, marking a watershed moment in how the country approaches relationship, commitment and family life.


New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that just 49.5% of adults aged 16 and over are married or in civil partnership.


For some, the trend suggests alternative forms of partnership better matched to modern pressures while for others, the...
Daily Mirror •

Love Island legend 'to return to the show' after split from famous ex

A former Love Island champion is reported to be set to make a surprise return to the second series of Love Island: All Stars, which lands in January. The returning ITV star – who first entered the villa four years ago and went on to win her series – has been in advanced talks with ITV after producers reached out to the newly single bombshell earlier this autumn.

Millie Court, 29, who won the show in 2021, will be packing her bikinis once again after her second split from fellow champion Liam Re...
Southwark News •

Dulwich to Denmark: 80 years of questions and answers after World War Two

Eighty years ago in Dulwich, as VE Day celebrations roared across Britain, my great-grandmother Mary Robbins sat down to write a letter to her family in Ireland, writes Emily Driver…


Her son, Alfred, an RAF bomb aimer, had disappeared a year earlier.  

“Glad to know the cursed war is over at last. Now I’m more keenly than ever looking forward to good news of Alf, or better still, seeing him in person. People went mad here, but I couldn’t participate. It made me wish more than ever he was her...
The Mirror •

Inside Holly Willoughby's epic family holiday as Strictly gig beckons

Holly Willoughby has given fans a glimpse inside her recent Florida getaway as Strictly Come Dancing rumours heat up. The 44-year-old TV darling swapped British autumn drizzle for roller coasters, Disney castles, and cocktails as she jetted to Orlando with her family and close friends for half-term. Posting on Instagram, the mum-of-three gushed over an “epic” trip, saying there is “Nothing better than family time and making the best memories together” – complete with “non-stop laughs” and plenty...
South West Londoner •

The Brits helping deliver aid to Ukraine in their spare time  | South West Londoner

While governments debate strategy and sanctions, a quiet army of British volunteers have found their own ways to help keep Ukraine’s wheels turning through the war.


“It’s like being in a Second World War film or a Western — another era. Sandbags on either side of the old carriages taking me to the train station, sometimes sirens sounding.”


This is how Adrian Simpson, a retired security consultant from Devon, described the final leg of his solo journeys home from Ukraine. Nearly 2000 kilome...
Southwark News •

South London’s ‘party poet’ tells us how it all started in pubs in Peckham

In the cellar of Southwark Tavern, in Borough, James Massiah is talking to me about equations. Not the kind he once ignored at his many schools in South London (apologies Beecholme Park, Gorringe Park and Mitcham Vale), but the ones he now learns as a poet and the creator of party poetry phenomenon Adult Entertainment, writes Emily Driver…


“In maths you have a right answer and a wrong answer, and that’s what I want to get to the bottom of,” he tells me. “What’s a right answer for a poem? When...
North East Londoner •

Refugee to restaurateur: Yogi’s Sri Lankan Kitchen is feeding Angel with kindness  | North East Londoner

When Trampoline Café in Angel changed hands under new ownership this month, it was not a faceless business deal – it was a homecoming. The Sri Lankan-run café, tucked in the cobbled backstreets of Camden Passage, has long been known for its fresh ingredients, crowds spilling into the streets, and its powerful mission: to train and employ refugees through its Changing Journeys programme. Now, that mission has taken a full-circle turn. On 1 October, Trampoline Café officially passed down into the...
Southwark News •

A ‘blueprint’ for the future? Students and experts weigh in on Greenwich-Kent university merger

Students at the University of Greenwich have voiced optimism about preliminary plans to merge their institution with the University of Kent, in a pioneering move set to establish the UK’s first multi-university group, writes Emily Driver…


From autumn 2026, if plans are approved, the two universities will be managed by a single vice-chancellor, Professor Jane Harrington, and unite more than 28,000 students across existing campuses in Greenwich, Kent and Medway. The new university group will be...
southlondon.co.uk •

Review: The Land of the Living at the Dorfman - southlondon.co.uk

The Land of the Living, opens on a hesitation. Ruth (Juliet Stevenson) stumbles over her words, circling a question posed by a man from her past, Older Thomas (Tom Wlaschiha). We do not hear the question, but as the play unfolds it is revealed as the inexhaustible one: who am I, and where do I come from, writes Emily Driver.


For Thomas, that question is freighted with a uniquely brutal inheritance. Back in war-torn Bavaria, we learn with Ruth, a UN relief worker, that as a boy he was torn fro...
Southwark News •

Rogue traders ‘thriving’ as South London’s trading standards teams stretched to breaking point, says report

Staffing for consumer protection in some South London boroughs reaches an all time low, leaving counterfeit goods, scams and cowboy builders free to operate with little fear of prosecution, writes Emily Driver…


The report by consumer watchdog Which? has revealed a collapse in trading standards enforcement across Britain – with South London boroughs as among the worst hit. Lambeth – home to a population of over 318,000 people and over 13,000 businesses – has just two trading standards officers...
Southwark News •

World’s oldest boat race returns to the Thames

The River Thames will swap ferries, freighters and Uber boats for single sculls on Wednesday, 10 September, as three rowers compete in the Doggett’s Coat and Badge Wager – the oldest continuously run boat race in the world, writes Emily Driver…


Dating back to 1715, the annual wager is a historic test of strength, skill and endurance. The arena is a 7.44km course of London’s most iconic, fast-running waters between London Bridge and Cadogan Pier. The award: the Red Coat and Silver Badge – one...
southlondon.co.uk •

Review: The Popess at The Glitch - southlondon.co.uk

In Waterloo this week, a conclave has been called. Cardinals gather in the basement of The Glitch, white plumes of smoke curl skyward, the papal throne is filled. The surprise? The pope is a woman, writes Emily Driver. 


The Popess, written and performed by Elena Mazzon and directed by Colin Watkeys, draws on an obscure and tantalising fragment of Christian history: the cult surrounding Gugliema of Bohemia, a 13th-century noblewoman once hailed by followers as the reincarnation of the Holy Spi...
Southwark News •

Walworth Road partially closed after car crashes into traffic light

A section of Walworth Road in SE17 was cordoned off this afternoon after a car crashed into a traffic light, writes Emily Driver…


Emergency services were called to the scene at 12:53pm. Officers from the Metropolitan Police secured the area, while firefighters from Peckham Fire Station attended to make safe any exposed electrical wiring caused by the crash. One vehicle was involved, and no serious injuries have been reported.


 A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We were called...
Southwark News •

Appleby Blue Almshouse in Bermondsey shortlisted for Prestigious National Housing Award

Two South London housing developments – including Bermondsey’s Appleby Blue Almshouse – have been recognised for their pioneering approaches to affordable housing and shortlisted for a prestigious national architecture award, writes Emily Driver…


Bermondsey’s Appleby Blue Almshouse, which reimagines the traditional almshouse model to meet 21st-century needs, is among the four projects shortlisted by the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) for the Neave Brown Award for Housing 2025 –...
southlondon.co.uk •

Review: Dulwich Picture Gallery - Time Spaghetti - southlondon.co.uk

Dulwich Picture Gallery’s new display doesn’t belong to time past, present or future – but to time overspilled and cheerfully tangled: Time Spaghetti, writes Emily Driver. 


The works by Lisa Contucci, Clifton Wright and Stanley Ganton stage a new kind of conversation for the gallery, held, not over a dinner table, but across eras. When sharp and sustained, they prompt us to consider the gallery’s old masters with a fresh set of devouring eyes.Contucci’s process-driven art begins from photogra...
Southwark News •

Hot spot by the dock: Canada Water’s summer itinerary unlocked

Canada Water is fast becoming one of South London’s bubbliest neighbourhoods – and this summer it’s making a bigger splash than ever before with free films, live music, food, art and sport on offer, writes Emily Driver…


Showcasing summer in full bloom is Trumpet Flowers – a giant, interactive light-and-sound installation making its UK debut until 22 September. The towering trumpet-shaped blooms, created by Australian artists Amigo & Amigo, light up and play melodies when activated by passers...

Guardians of Literature: Readings from the 2023 Booker Prize Shortlist  – Era Journal

Upon tomorrow’s announcement of this year’s Booker Prize winner, Literature sub-editor EMILY DRIVER discusses her impressions on the six positions shortlisted, and how those were shaped by meeting the authors at the Shortlist Readings at the Southbank Centre.
 
Two hurricanes, two debuts on the scene, three Pauls and a whole lot of generational trauma. No, this is not my last family holiday gone wrong. This is the 2023 Booker Prize shortlist. What can such a concoction of literature tell us abou...

Do Not Put This Poetry in the Wash: Readings from the 2023 T.S. Eliot Prize Shortlist  – Era Journal

EMILY DRIVER reports on the annual readings by shortlisted poets at the Southbank Centre.
 
Last Sunday’s T.S. Eliot Prize shortlist readings commenced as you’d expect any worthwhile party should, with ‘A Game of Chess’. I’m not sure, however, that T.S. Eliot was all too familiar with the ins and outs of the game when he used this title for the second section of his masterpiece poem, The Waste Land, as this kind of chess didn’t involve any pawns or bishops but mythical birds, couples bickering o...

Things Coming Together in Alchemy: In conversation with Jane Clarke and Jason Allen-Paisant  – Era Journal

EMILY DRIVER interviews Jane Clarke, shortlisted for the 2023 T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry, and Jason Allen-Paisant, the winner of the prize. 
 
There are poet’s poets, and then there are poet’s poet prizes—that being the T.S. Eliot Prize. Described by former poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion as ‘the prize poets most want to win’, previous recipients have come to be known as the powerhouses of the poetry of today—Ocean Vuong, Seamus Heaney, Carol Anne Duffy, Ted Hughes—the list goes on. For the 202...