Meet The Moodie Davitt Report team: Introducing Chief Sub Editor Leanne Farnell

We are pleased to introduce the team in this regular column. Please meet our Chief Sub Editor Leanne Farnell.

May 16, 2025 - 12:46

Meet The Moodie Davitt Report team: Introducing Chief Sub Editor Leanne Farnell

The Moodie Davitt Report may bear the names of its Founder & Chairman Martin Moodie and long-time President (and since 2015 Co-Owner) Dermot Davitt, but there is much more to the company than its two leaders.

Our diverse and inclusive, multi-talented, multi-cultural 20-member team (including regular freelancers and consultants) is based across numerous locations, including Hong Kong, Hainan, Ireland, Wales, England and the Philippines.

They speak eight languages between them and collectively represent the leading travel retail B2B publisher and events company with distinction across administration & finance, editorial, events, film, research, sales and technology.

We are pleased to introduce the team in this regular column. Please meet our Chief Sub Editor Leanne Farnell.

**Exploring the world: Moments from Leanne’s Thailand adventure in 2018**

Tell us a little about yourself.

I was born on Father’s Day in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire in the UK – it’s since been a long-running family joke that I’ll never be able to better that gift for my dad.

I grew up surrounded by family – my parents, sister Sophie and brother Mark, as well as my grandparents who we were very lucky to have living nearby.

Holidays were spent exploring the beautiful Lake District or on the Norfolk coast, eating sandy sandwiches, investigating rock pools and riding the waves in our rubber dinghy. It was a very ‘Famous Five’-esque upbringing, and one I am now trying to replicate for my own son.

I was that child who always had her nose in a book – I can recall being told off for reading under the covers with a torch long after I should have been fast asleep. When I wasn’t reading, I was writing – stories and poems; and I had success from a young age, having a poem published when I was about eight years old. I still have a copy of the book hiding away in the attic somewhere.

Animals were a big part of my childhood, from our family dog Ollie to multiple hamsters, rabbits, goldfish, cats, and even stick insects. In fact, until I hit my teenage years, I had aspirations of becoming a vet.

**Leanne’s lifelong affection for animals took root in childhood, nurtured by time with her father and their dog Ollie**

My love of reading and writing led me down a different career path, however. I completed a BA degree in Journalism at Staffordshire University in 2005 before heading into the world of publishing with Your Cat magazine, bringing together my love of animals and words.

**A glimpse of Leanne’s (top left) early love for storytelling – here during a school play performance**

**Snapshots from Leanne’s early years: (left) with a friend at age eight, (right) as a baby with her sister Sophie**

My husband Steven and I met when we were eight years old and our families lived across the road from each other – his earliest memory of me is a pony-tailed little girl roller-skating around the streets, and mine of him is the strange boy who played out in his shorts no matter the weather.

**Childhood sweethearts: Leanne and Steven will celebrate 18 years of marriage on 19 May**

**(Left) Leanne’s pregnancy announcement captured with Amy and Bobby; (right) son Harry and rescue cocker spaniel Monty are the best of friends**

**Leanne and family in their element, enjoying the sport they love at the 2022 Commonwealth Games**

We became best friends and eventually a couple in our late teens, despite having spent the previous few years telling our friends it was never going to happen. We’ve been married for 18 years this month (19 May) and extended our family with the addition of dogs Bobby and Amy, followed by our long-awaited son Harry just over ten years ago. Bobby and Amy are sadly no longer with us, but we adopted a deaf cocker spaniel Monty last autumn, and he has more than filled the dog-shaped hole in our lives.

**Born to run: Leanne’s road to marathon success wasn’t easy, training and completing the 26.2 miles during lockdown in 2020 and 2021, but it remains one of her proudest achievements**

We moved to Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire 13 years ago and it is now the place we now call home. Known as the land of roundabouts, you may be surprised by how much green space there is. I could often be found running around Ouzel Valley and the local lakes and parks a few years ago as I trained for multiple half marathons followed by a marathon in 2021.

Sadly I have had to hang up my running shoes due to injury and now spend as much of my free time as I can walking Monty along those same paths. I love to be outdoors and I’ll be out in the garden at the first sniff of sunshine.

Nowadays, my big loves are still reading and writing (when I can find the time), closely followed by being Harry’s biggest cheerleader, taxi service, kit washer and snack provider. Steven and I have instilled our shared love of rugby in Harry, and we are both involved in the running of his rugby team, Milton Keynes RUFC U10s. Between us and a great group of volunteers, we’re teaching over 40 children the joys and values of the sport, something I find incredibly rewarding.

When did you join The Moodie Davitt Report?

I began with The Moodie Davitt Report as a freelance sub editor in the summer of 2023, following over 16 years with the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) editing their membership publications.

Unfortunately, there were changes within the IET that didn’t suit my family commitments, so I had to leave. However, every cloud has a silver lining as it brought me to where I am now, a fully-fledged member of the brilliant Moodie Davitt Report team since January 2024.

**Animal lover Leanne enjoys feeding alpacas in the Lake District**

What is your role?

I am the Chief Sub Editor for the company – a job made all the more enjoyable thanks to the calibre of writers within the company.

It is a pleasure to work alongside people with the same interest in language – Martin (Moodie, Founder and Chairman) and I have had several conversations about the correct and preferred use of certain words. Probably not everyone’s idea of a thrilling conversation, but it suits me.

A highlight of your time with The Moodie Davitt Report?

Being a desk-based role, I don’t travel like many of my colleagues. I did, however, join the team for a lovely evening in London not long after I joined and it was truly a delight to be made to feel so welcome and valued.

I can still remember Hannah (Tan, Brands Director) greeting me with the warmest hug, and Matt (Willey, Development and Systems Operations Director) shaking my hand as I left, saying, “please stick with us”.

I enjoy working in a professional environment with endlessly high standards. Despite having been a sub editor for almost half my life, I’m still being pushed and challenged every day, something that I relish.

I’m encouraged to look at every piece of work and question ‘how can this be better?’, and you’d be amazed at the smallest touches that can take a piece from good to great. It has been, and continues to be, a learning curve, and long may that be the case.

What is your approach to work, your business philosophy?

I love the saying ‘if a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well’. There’s no point in a half-hearted effort – you should be ‘all in’, or not at all. Job satisfaction comes from knowing you’ve given it your all and then you switch off the laptop at the end of each day, ready to go again the next morning.

What is it that makes you tick? Your positive/negative traits?

I think my negative trait actually works as a positive in my line of work. I’m a perfectionist, so I can be hard on myself, but it also means I like to produce only the highest-quality work.

This shows in other areas of my life, particularly another love of mine, baking – I’ve been known to stay up until the early hours perfecting my latest birthday cake creation.

How important are leisure time and out of work interests?

Incredibly important. I’m a firm believer in a proper work-life balance. I’m fortunate to have a home office, where I work each day. And as soon as that door closes, I’m no longer Chief Sub Editor Leanne. I’m mum and wife, and the family gets my full attention.

**Leanne’s favourite family getaways: (from top) A journey through Lapland’s winter wonderland and Costa Rica’s rainforests; California road trip; Jamaica beach holiday; and Phuket adventure**

In a similar vein, holiday time is crucial to us as a family. My husband works away a lot, so we dedicate our down time to being together. We’ve never shied away from travelling with Harry, even as a baby, and we’ve had some incredible experiences – from feeding and washing rescue elephants at a sanctuary in Phuket, Thailand or climbing the spectacular Dunn’s Falls in Jamaica; to doing a Californian road trip or ziplining through the Cloud Forest in Costa Rica last Christmas. Work hard, holiday harder!

We’re also all big rugby supporters. We lost our club, London Wasps, a few years ago, but go along to support our local Premiership side, Northampton Saints, as often as we can. We also visit Rugby HQ, the Allianz Stadium (though it’ll always be Twickenham to me) a few times each season, and can’t wait to attend the Women’s Rugby World Cup Final there later this year. Harry had the honour of running out as mascot with the England men’s team at Twickenham earlier this season at the England vs Scotland Six Nations game – a real pinch me moment, for him and for me.

A must-have in duty free?

I’m often dragged into an airport Lego store by Harry (and Steven, to be honest), but if I manage to slip away to browse the duty-free stores my first port of call will always be the Jo Malone London counter for my favourites – Blackberry and Bay, and Wild Bluebell.

This summer I’m also hoping to pick up a bottle of the Isle of Wight Distillery’s Mermaid Gin, recently discovered after editing a story about it for The Moodie Davitt Report and then my husband coincidentally bringing me back a bottle from a trip.

And a desert island choice of music and book – or something else?

**Music and memories: Leanne and her mother attended a special Robbie Williams concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 2022**

I’m not sure I could possibly choose just one book. Can I bring my Kindle? I love reading about people’s lives, so I’d fill it with autobiographies and real-life stories.

My music taste is still greatly influenced by my childhood adoration of boyband Take That. I’m a huge fan of Robbie Williams, having seen him in concert too many times to mention – I even walked down the aisle to his ballad, ‘She’s the One’.

And I can’t forget the raspy Welsh tones of Kelly Jones (lead singer of the Stereophonics) – I could listen to his voice all day, favourites being ‘Thousand Trees’ and ‘You’re My Star’.

I fulfilled a long-held ambition a couple of years ago to see The Boss, Bruce Springsteen in concert, taking my mum to see him perform at London’s Hyde Park. In typical English summer style, it rained, but it didn’t dampen our spirits and we had a great night.

‘Born To Run’ will forever be my first choice by Bruce – it certainly kept me running through those long months of marathon training back in 2021.

I’m thrilled that my son, Harry, now shares my love of live music and at the tender age of ten has already attended numerous concerts with me. One of our most memorable was Harry Styles a couple of years ago; seeing young Harry sing along to every word still brings a smile to my face today. He’s a bit of a mini rockstar and particularly loves Harry Styles’ song ‘Kiwi’, so I would have to include that on a desert island playlist.