Hazel's Chestnut
Hazel has been a freelance journalist and copywriter since abandoning a promising academic career in 2002 to spend her life waiting for expensive trains, chasing comment from elusive professionals and upsetting celebrities with her inane questioning.
In addition to her work with Train and Penny and as a corporate copywriter she writes for the major UK newspapers including the Guardian, the Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph, The Times, the Daily Mail, the Express and the Independent. She also writes for the education market and music press, including Billboard and Word. She thinks this makes her cool (she isn’t).
Hazel is a regular on BBC Radio Leeds, helps run a stand-up comedy night and folk music website called Folking Cool . Her passions are music, comedy, books and films; she sings in a chamber choir, is obsessed with Raymond Carver and knows too much about Alfred Hitchcock. Although she lives in Linthwaite, West Yorkshire, she tells anyone who will listen that she lives in Manchester.
Two stories, one birthday
The Train and Penny Express left the warehouse in late May 2009. It was the result of a meeting of minds, two pieces of a jigsaw slotting together, the culmination of any number of clichés you care to mention. But the formal coupling of the Charlie and Hazel cars was not as straightforward as one might imagine.
The two gravitated together through their work in around 2003, freelancers in profession and spirit, one tracking down the other in search of potential editorial work. The scene was set for a meeting over cake and tepid cafetière à piston coffee at Manchester City Art Gallery.
Turns out they were both born on 31 May, albeit aeons apart. They kept in touch (obviously) but their professional paths diverged somewhat, Hazel throwing herself into journalism and Charlie starting to focus on commercial and web copywriting.
But time went by and the collaborative spirit strengthened as Hazel and Charlie started having ideas that could only be brought to fruition by a more formal partnership. Train and Penny is now up to pressure and ready to roll.
Charlie's Angle
Originally from Runcorn, Charlie Hankers arrived in Manchester in ’95 with nothing but the clothes he was wearing, a bag of essentials and a two vanloads of furniture and creature comforts. He'd landed a job at a prestigious darkroom, printing photos for the local flasherati; then one day he saw the light.
He left the enlargers behind and became enmeshed with the design and publishing industries. By avoiding convoluted crap like this essay, he got himself recognised as a sharp, witty, intelligent and modest copywriter, freelancing his way around the digital world, giving wordage to a diversity of clients, from a Japanese arthouse magazine to the UK's marketing and PR minority, writing direct mail, web copy and press releases.
During this time he met the aforementioned journalist Hazel Davis, an inspirational yet feisty pest; she persuaded him that if they pooled their talents, contacts and enthusiasm, they could really make a splash. And so they did.