Meet the SEnine team

Just in case you wanted to know the faces behind SE9’s favourite magazine…

John comes from Halifax, West Yorkshire, attended Hipperholme Grammar School, followed with a degree in Economics and Accounting from Newcastle University 1974-77.
After working on local papers in Sutton, Surrey and Crawley, West Sussex, he reported for the Yorkshire Post in Leeds from 1981-85.
As a PR, he worked for the Social Democratic Party (1985 – 87), Home Office (1987 – 1990) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food/Department for Environmental and Rural Affairs (1990 – 2006).
He has been editor of SEnine magazine since its inception in December 2006, taking over ownership in March 2017. The magazine issued its 160th monthly issue in March 2020.
John is also chair of the Friends of Well Hall Pleasaunce and Friends of Avery Hill Park as well an active member of the Save Avery Hill Winter Garden campaign
John lives in SE9 with Jane and has a daughter Rosie.
Marek

Despite his exotic name, Marek speaks with a distinctly Scottish accent as he was born in Ayrshire, many moons ago.

He went to university in Glasgow and dabbled in the performing arts with various theatre companies before landing a PR job with the Glasgow Garden Festival. This led to more PR and marketing work with events and music festivals, eventually becoming Marketing Manager for the Glasgow International Jazz Festival.

Since the early 2000s, Marek has run his own company, Triptych Design, working with SMEs and organisations across the UK.

His involvement with SEnine began in 2007, when he radically redesigned the magazine on a pro bono basis. Marek went on to design all the 2008 editions.

He returned in 2017 to work alongside John Webb on the relaunch of SEnine.

John Kennett

John Kennett, SEnine’s resident historical expert, is a life-long Eltham resident, former primary school teacher and in 1965 was a founder member of the Eltham Society.

He has written several books on Eltham’s past and has had a monthly feature Historic Eltham in SEnine since 2007.

Grace Boyle

Grace Boyle is our youngest columnist.
She is a trained actress, having spent three years at Glasgow’s Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and has performed in theatres across the UK.

Melanie Wray is our new columnist for 2023.

Melanie is from New Eltham and after attending The Royal Central School for Speech and Drama, for three decades she worked as a Senior Director, Producer and Broadcast Journalist for Radio and TV mainly at the BBC,and other broadcasters including ITV and Channel 4.
She moved back to the South East in 2017 and became a Lecturer in Film and TV in a local FE college.
She also directs plays at The Bob Hope Hope Theatre and began writing articles for SEnine earlier this year.
Melanie would love to hear about any interesting stories you may wish to share.