Mark Fisher is part of the M-Team, a group of four creative people who use our many years of experience to help others move forward in their careers.
The M-Team aims to meet all your training needs in journalism, creative writing, TV and radio, photography and picture editing.
We are all experienced trainers who have worked in a wide range of fields and who offer sympathetic and insightful training.
Most of us have gained accreditation from the Chartered Management Institute and we can offer both coaching or mentoring to individuals or groups.
Or we can come into your organisation and offer you a bespoke package to take your business forward.
We are based in central Scotland but will travel anywhere to help you or your organisation.
And of course, in this time of Covid 19, we are doing much of our mentoring via online platforms.
Contact Jean Rafferty for information about our rates.
Email: jeanrafferty.fireopal@btopenworld.com or call her on: 07881 304 729
Who we are
Mark Fisher is a theatre critic, editor, feature writer and freelance journalist based in Edinburgh. He has written about theatre since the late-1980s, contributing theatre reviews, interviews, arts features and travel articles to newspapers and magazines in Scotland and all over the world.
He has published two books about cult band XTC as well as hosting a podcast about them.
He is a theatre critic for The Guardian, a former editor of The List magazine and a frequent contributor to magazines, newspapers and websites.
As an editor, he has worked for the Edinburgh International Festival and Raploch Urban Regeneration Company. He is the co-editor of Made in Scotland, an anthology of plays; The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide: how to make your show a success, published in February 2012; How to Write About Theatre: a manual for critics, students, and bloggers, published in August 2015.
He is also responsible for the theatreSCOTLAND website, a wide-ranging database of actors, playwrights, theatre companies and buildings, plus reviews and articles.
Specialities: theatre reviewing, feature writing, arts journalism, self-publishing
If you would like to know more about Mark Fisher’s work please check out his website and follow him on Twitter and Facebook
Elaine Livingstone is a freelance photographer based in Glasgow working on a variety of domestic and international photographic assignments for a wide range of clients including national press, magazines, publishers, charities, institutes and organisations.
Finalist in WGPA Storyteller Competition for independent documentary photography project – February 2011.
Sunday Herald
British Picture Editor Awards: Newspaper of the Year 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007
British Picture Editor Awards: Magazine of the Year 2007
Scottish Press Photography Awards: Newspaper of the Year 2005, 2007
Society of Newspaper Design Awards:
2002: Award of Excellence
2003: 2 Silver Awards, 6 Awards of Excellence
2004: Silver Award
2005: Silver Award, 4 Awards of Excellence
2006: Award of Excellence
2007: Award of Excellence
European Newspaper Design Awards
2004: Award of Excellence
2005: 3 Awards of Excellence
2006: 6 Awards of Excellence
The Herald
British Picture Editor Awards: Magazine of the Year 2003
Specialities: photography and picture editing
If you would like to know more about Elaine Livingstone’s work please follow her on Twitter and Facebook
Mike Higgins is a broadcast news and current affairs producer, journalist and film maker based near Glasgow.
He has produced and directed insightful documentaries for Channel 4, STV and ITV as well as being in the thick of live broadcast news production.
His digital film-making and video editing courses have been adopted by the National Union of Journalists as the gold standard in digital convergence, helping staff photographers, reporters, freelance journalists and public relations executives upskill and widen their options within the ever-changing print and broadcasting sectors.
In addition Mike coaches filming, editing, television production and journalism for a range of clients including BBC Scotland and colleges and universities in Scotland and England.
Mike’s career includes reporting and subbing on newspapers, magazines and publishing. He worked on various titles at Scottish and Universal Newspapers and the Wakefield Express series along with freelance assignments, before joining local radio, then national television.
He is author of the book Sudan: The Eternal Apocalypse (Jamieson and Munro) and was joint originator and co-ordinator of the book Glasgow: 24-hours In The Life Of A City (Chapman).
BBC Scotland 2003–present
Producer news and current affairs programmes working on: Reporting Scotland (daily television news programme and bulletins); Good Morning Scotland (early morning radio current affairs programme); John Beattie (daily mid-day radio current affairs programme); Newsdrive (evening drivetime radio current affairs programme; election specials.
Alba Productions 1989 –present
I provide multi-platform digital video training for journalists anywhere but particularly for those who have been made redundant or for freelancers who need to change their skills in order to survive. Using several camera formats and video editing.
Specialities: broadcast, film production, journalism, media training, press releases, public relations, radio, television, video editing, books
If you would like to know more about Mike Higgins and his work, please follow him on Facebook
Jean Rafferty‘s latest novel is Foul Deeds Will Rise, a novel about satanist abuse set on the beautiful island of Orkney. Published in 2019 by Wild Wolf, an independent publisher from Newcastle.
Rafferty is a writer of fiction and an award-winning journalist. Her first two works of fiction were both nominated for literary prizes.
Myra, Beyond Saddleworth, published in 2012 by Wild Wolf Publishing, was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize.
The Four Marys, published in 2014 by Saraband Books, a collection of four novellas on themes of motherhood and identity, was longlisted for the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered awards.
Her third work of fiction, Foul Deeds Will Rise, about satanist ritual abuse, was published in June this year by independent publisher, Wild Wolf Publishing.
She is also the author of two non-fiction books and co-wrote the pamphlet Freedom of Expression in the New Scotland with Alan Bisset.
She has twice been shortlisted in the UK Press Awards as feature writer of the year and has won awards for travel writing, medical journalism and comment. In 2003 she won a Joseph Rowntree Journalist’s Fellowship for her work on prostitution.
She has travelled widely for her journalism and has also taught on various journalism workshops in countries such as Nepal, Albania, Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone.
She was privileged to take part in Lesley Riddoch‘s Africawoman project in Ghana in 2001.
For many years she was a visiting lecturer on the University of Strathclyde‘s postgraduate and undergraduate courses in Journalism and Creative Writing and is still in touch with many former students.
She has delivered training for the National Union of Journalists, local councils, newspapers, universities and businesses and has been called an ‘inspirational trainer.’
Specialities: feature writing, creative writing, column writing, the road to publishing, flash fiction
If you would like to know more about Jean Rafferty’s work, please check out her website and follow her on Twitter and Facebook