Rosie MacLeod

Radio, Writing and Translation

I am a freelance radio journalist, writer and translator. I host the theatre show, ‘Stages’ on East London Radio, where I have my own spot, ‘Rosie Reports’. I regularly report for ShoutOut UK and am interested in music and literary journalism, as well as news. Translation-wise, I translate from German and French into English. I tweet as @RosieMacLeod4. Instagram:rosie.macleod.3

Radio & Audio

I have experience of producing and presenting news programmes for a number of stations, making features that fulfil a brief and going ‘out on location’ to interview MPs and diplomats. World Literature Today commissioned my interviews with women crime writers. For Making Contact Radio, I investigated the campaign against ‘tampon tax’ and domestic abuse during lockdown. The gallery directly below shows the length and breadth of my radio reportage. A proud moment was when my radio interview with the band Wheatus proved so popular it crashed the station’s Twitter feed.

Journalism & Writing

I am an auditory learner myself, so most of my written journalism is accompanied by some complementary UGC audio of my own making. Before joining ShoutOut UK in 2021, I contributed to Women on Writing (‘WOW’), Inside Over, Debateabase, The Vagenda, Period!, The Waltham Forest Echo and Drunk Monkeys. I interviewed Kofi Annan’s former speech writer for Ideas Tap and contributed to a language politics piece for The Local (‘France’s News in English’). I have had academic reviews published in the Journal of Austrian Studies. I enjoy going out on a story to unearth the unreported.

Translation

Language combinations: German into English; French into English. After completing my MA in Modern Languages (French and German) from St Andrews University, I undertook project management duties in two translation offices. Learning the inner workings of the industry was invaluable. Following my MA in Translation in 2009, my first commission was a large psychiatric report. This gave me an introduction to the medical translation I especially enjoy. Scroll down for more information on the translation/interpreting services I offer.

Written Journalism

Literary Journalism

A piece I wrote for Women On Writing (WOW), about why women make great crime writers https://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/93-FE-WomenCrimeWriters.html

…and its audio accompaniment in World Literature Today. https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/interviews/investigating-women-crime-writers-four-audio-interviews-rosie-macleod

A piece I wrote for Women on Writing (WOW), about finding a voice when writing dialogue, speeches and radio scripts: https://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/95-FE-Isolated-Vocals.html

Interpreting Channel 4’s Effy Stonem as re-telling Theodor Fontane’s Effi Briest. For Drunk Monkeys. https://www.drunkmonkeys.us/2017-posts/2019/4/1/essay-effy-stonem-a-retelling-rosie-macleod

Of Gherkins and gooseberries: the two Effies. My mind runs on retellings and re-imaginings of stories and characters.

A piece for The Vagenda about Nobel prize-winning environmentalist, Wangari Maathai http://vagendamagazine.com/2015/06/fem-vironmentalism-wangari-maathai-a-grass-roots-feminist/index.htm

News Reportage

Some photo journalism isn’t out of the question…

Commentary from ‘Andy Street Artist’: https://youtu.be/De3xPkQF4EE
Demonstrators protest Canada Goose’s use of fur, April 2021. https://youtu.be/Dq1w_8AtuMk

My Work

Interviewing Austrian Ambassador to the UK, Michael Zimmermann. For vindobona.org. December 2018.
Backstage at the 02 Arena with Brendan B. Brown from Wheatus! (2016)
Discussing neurodiversity in theatre for East London Radio, January 2022.
Speaking to a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament veteran, Caroline, at the DSEI protest, 2021.
Report from Women’s Equality Party-led disability rights protest, August 2021.
Discussing adaptations, retellings and re-imaginings of Gilbert and Sullivan for East London Radio, 2021.

About Me

‘Like history, memory is inherently revisionist and never more chameleon than when it appears to stay the same’- Vita Fortunati and Elena Lamberti.

My mind runs on translations. Whether detangling the many intertwined layers of a complex news story, converting words from one language to another or re-imagining stories in new timeframes, I feel am undertaking a translational process.

My background in European Studies forms the baseline to my journalism and writing work. While my extensive study of the European Union equipped me for covering international stories, I draw on Memory Studies and European Literature to find inventive perspectives.

I find myself especially drawn to the tension between the official, documented version of history and the forgotten traces, those stories that have been written out but usually make for engaging journalism. This extends to our contemporary history and uncovering the unreported is like hunting treasure from history’s under-explored corners.

A keen interest in literary adaptations and retellings has facilitated my journalism work, enabling me to consider a rewrite of history as if updating a story: does it betray the original, or simply redraft it to resonate with the present? This trope has been especially relevant since May 2021, when Black Lives Matter became central to the news agenda. The watershed moment has caused an inescapable need to reassess our history, which makes for an interesting time to be a journalist, uncovering it in the making.

Fake News, ‘Trace News’ and Collective Memory: Understanding Misinformation

Translation

When I fell ill at age 12 and required 6 weeks off school, I never imagined I would remerge with a renewed ability to speak French but that is exactly what happened. Watching educational French programmes every day helped me fall in love with a subject I had previously felt only a lukewarm attachment to.

Studying German supported my study of Modern History. The topic of ‘Die Mauer’ was frequently used as a past tense exercises and what I learned in German helped me understand the Cold War. This is how I learned of the benefits of having a foreign language to working level. My background in Modern History helped me further when I undertook my MA in Translation, which entailed extensive study of the European Union and its use of translation as an intercultural activity.

I offer translation from German into UK English and from French into UK English. I am also able to interpret within those language combinations.

I have experience of business, legal and financial translation. In these closely connected fields, my experience covers property, insurance and real estate insurance, inheritance, taxation, stocks and shares as well as official certificates. I am very well versed in translating German taxation documents/slips and French property documentation. I also have experience of technical translation: I have translated construction material, warehouse manuals and a patent. I have interpreted at the Royal Courts of Justice.

I am especially drawn to scientific, medical and pharmaceutical translation and in 2010 I completed a medical interpreting course through my employer. Since then, I have gained extensive experience of interpreting on hospital wards and in medical and pharmaceutical contexts. I performed consecutive interpreting between German and English in Prague for a business conference held by the pharmaceuticals industry. I have experience of translating medical reports about obesity, post-cancer care and protein experiments. I have translated a number of hospital discharge certificates and hospital appointment records. I have experience of interpreting within other areas of Public Services, which I really enjoy. This includes interpreting for family, children and refugee centres, employment and housing meetings and formal hearings for family law. I have interpreted for supervised contact hours. My DBS is on automatic renewal.  

http://martyn-simpson.blogspot.com/2017/ – I translated ‘the patent’ referenced in this blogpost, which enabled the author to construct his own intonarumori (avant-garde mechanical musical instrument).


Some highlights

Presenting at an outdoor broadcast for Radio Verulam, May 2017.
Doing some filming over linkup for ’90 Day Fiancé UK’ on Discovery, November 2021 (aired 2022).
In conversation with Nicky Weller, sister of Paul, about growing up as The Jam fan club manager and the ban’d lasting impact. July 2022.
Reporting from the Women’s Equality Party disability rights protest, Parliament Square, August 2021.
Going Underground to interview Nicky Weller for East London Radio, with some Jam artefacts in hand, July 2022.
Interviewing the Dutch Ambassador to the UK for ‘What They Don’t Tell You About The EU’ on East London Radio. May 2018.
What They Don’t Tell You About The EU: The Netherlands – episode.6. East London Radio.
Producing the news show, ‘Outspoken’, on Radio Verulam- hosted by journalist Louisa Peacock and later writer Angela Clarke. Photo 2014.
Reporting on the 50:50 Parliament #AskHerToStand day for Women’s Radio Station, November 2018.
Application for ‘BBC Expert Women’, filmed in the Palace of Westminster, March 2017.
Presenting some research in New Orleans at the Austrian Studies Association Conference, April 2022.
Interviewing historian Roger Mason about Gladstone and Disraeli, February 2022.
Interviewing author Mona Eltahawy in London for Radio Verulam, December 2015.
Westminster has become a haunt through my journalism work. Picture March 2017.
Nominated for a Mind Media Award for a mental health episode on Radio Verulam, 2014. #mindawards
Interviewing crime author Sharon Bolton for Women on Writing, March 2018.
‘Didn’t we meet at the 50:50 Parliament event?!’ #Diversity. Reunited, September 2021.
Interpreting in Dover, April 2022. Taking in the historic seafront.
Interviewing environmentalist Alison Teal for ShoutOut UK, March 2020.
Reporting from events in Parliament for Women’s Radio Station, November 2018. T-shirt courtesy of ‘Sound Women’.
Speech from Ukraine Rally on the eve of Eurovision 2022.

Contact

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