At Exceptional our mission is to help you explore your passions by connecting you with entertaining and insightful content every day.
Whether you are interested in getting active and improving your fitness, creating the home you’ve always wanted, or starting a new hobby, we have the advice, reviews and inspiration you need to get started.
We’ve launched a new site to help inspire our readers with insightful and entertaining content – and we’d love you to join us on our journey.
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You are the centre of our world. We are here to write the articles that will help, inform and inspire you. We only cover stories we believe are beneficial to you, and our independent editorial approach means we never allow brands to influence our coverage.
Our team live and breathe the content they are covering and are committed to delivering an exceptional experience for you.
If we’re recommending a product, it’s because our team of experts believe it’s worthy of your consideration, and if a product doesn’t meet our high standards, we’ll let you know why.
Our team is formed of leading experts in their field who provide accurate, insightful articles, whether it’s reviewing the latest product, teaching you how to get something done, helping you choose what to buy, or simply providing an enjoyable read for you to experience.
Gareth is Exceptional’s Chief Content Officer, overseeing all the prose, pictures and video that appear on the website.
He was previously Global Editor in Chief of TechRadar, one of the world’s largest and most prominent technology websites, and has appeared as a technology and fitness expert on the TV and radio for the BBC, ITV, Al Jazeera, Sky and many other outlets, as well as chairing panels on the world’s new and exciting tech.
A veteran journalist with a career spanning three decades, Gareth has reviewed every iPhone (bar the very first) and Apple Watch launched, as well as reviewing hundreds of other smartphones and fitness gadgets.
His high point was getting to travel the globe to new and exciting product launches, getting to see the latest tech before anyone else and being able to run in some of the most beautiful places on the planet; the low point being stuck in an office for hours because his ‘smart socks’ wouldn’t charge.
A ‘dedicated’ (read: obsessed) runner, Gareth has run over 16,500 miles, been lost in Indonesian jungles and has competed in hundreds of races. He is currently training for his tenth marathon, a process that simply refuses to get any easier (mostly because he refuses to do the strength and stretch training he knows he’s supposed to do).
Sarah Brealey is Managing Editor at Saga Exceptional, making sure that everything you read on the website is high-quality and trustworthy. She has more than 20 years of journalism experience. Sarah was previously Editor at the British Heart Foundation, where she ran its award-winning patient magazine and other editorial content. She finds it incredibly rewarding to inform and inspire people with great content that gives them the information they need, and she does this by focusing on what readers want, combined with commitment to quality and attention to detail. She’s also a volunteer befriender for Age UK.
Outside of work, Sarah’s happiest moments are spent running or walking, preferably in mountains, by the sea or anywhere in nature, and she’s an active member of a walking group. Her other passions include yoga, cycling, travelling – especially by train – and food (both cooking and eating it).
Stephanie is Editor in Chief for Fitness at Exceptional. She has been a digital journalist for 16 years and has worked for a raft of respected titles. As former Digital Editor of Fit&Well and Woman&Home (shortlisted for PPA Digital Brand of the Year under her editorship), she has extensive fitness and wellness experience, and a keen understanding of what’s important to the over-50s audience.
At Exceptional, she uses that experience to create engaging, informative and enlightening content in the areas of exercise, fitness technology, gut health, nutrition, sleep and women’s health.
Stephanie is a keen sportswoman, and will gladly accept an invitation to play most games. She particularly loves netball, which she plays once a week. She is a qualified England Netball Level 2 coach, and has worked with adults and children in this capacity. She is also taking tennis lessons to improve her game (and, more importantly, finally beat her sister), and recently discovered the joys of padel tennis too.
Outside of sports, Stephanie works out weekly with her personal trainer, Em Newson at Ground Studio, whose areas of specialism include movement in menopause – a topic she feels passionately about. She’s also a fan of wild swimming, and has taken a refreshing dip everywhere from Ullswater to the Isle of Wight.
Stephanie lives in North London with her partner Keith and their son, Woody. When family life allows, she likes to indulge in her hobbies, including stained glass work and batch-cooking healthy, family-friendly dishes.
Phillipa Cherryson is Exceptional’s Fitness Passions Channel Editor. Phillipa has been a journalist for 30 years, writing for local and national newspapers, UK magazines and reporting onscreen for ITV.
Her passion is outdoor fitness. She’s an Ordnance Survey Champion; she organises walks, campouts and instructional activity days for South Wales members of online community the Adventure Queens; she’s vice chair of the Brecon Beacons National Park Local Access Forum and her partner is a long-serving member of the local mountain rescue team.
She hated sports at school and only started getting the fitness bug when she turned 50. Now she loves trail running, mountain walks, e-biking, climbing, surfing, paddleboarding and horse riding. She also loves cake.
Becky Fuller is a Staff Writer for Fitness at Exceptional. Becky is a fully qualified Personal Trainer, specialising in strength and conditioning for over 50s. Becky is passionate about Kettlebell training, and runs a regular kettlebell club in the local community. Prior to this, she worked as a Fitness manager in a local gym. Becky’s focus is helping people to become stronger both in body and mind, and to move well without pain.
Becky also has many years’ experience working as a freelance journalist, writing for a wide variety of publications such as Screen Rant, Geek Feed, and Daily Actor. She also regularly reviews theatre productions for UKTW.
Away from work, Becky unsurprisingly enjoys exercise, with a focus on lifting weights, kettlebells, and Olympic rings. She loves watching theatre, swimming, and reading a good book. She has three teenage children and enjoys spending time with them, preferably on a Cornish beach.
Gemma Harris is a Staff Writer for Fitness at Exceptional. Gemma has been a journalist for over seven years and is a self-confessed health and wellbeing enthusiast, which led her to specialise in health journalism. During her career, she has worked with top editors in the industry and taken on fun fitness challenges such as completing 40 weighted dead bugs daily for three weeks. She is particularly passionate about nutrition; after being diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome in 2016, she discovered her fascination for gut health and founded thegutchoice.com – a dedicated space for providing a hopeful outcome for people with gut issues. Gemma’s core aim is to help others through her writing.
Gemma has written about various topics from combatting the spread of health misinformation on social media and her experience of taking mental health medication, to sleep stories and mindful gardening. Previously a freelance journalist, she has produced content for leading health journals such as Gastrointestinal Nursing and the British Journal of Healthcare Management, as well as multimedia health and lifestyle platforms, including calmmoment.com, StomaTips, Fit&Well, LiveScience and metro.co.uk.
She is the proud owner of two adorable guinea pigs who are far too spoilt and have become her writing companions. When she is not writing, Gemma can be found walking in nature, at a yoga or spin class, swimming, doing an at-home YouTube workout, snuggling up with a self-help book or meditating. She is also a member of a local running club. These experiences help to influence and shape the content she creates. And because life is all about balance, Gemma also enjoys having cocktails with friends.
Julie Penfold is a Staff Writer for Fitness and Wellbeing at Exceptional. She’s been a specialist health and wellbeing journalist for more than 15 years and has been a finalist in three prestigious health and medical journalism awards during that time.
She has written for a wide variety of health, medical, wellbeing and fitness magazines and websites. These have included Running, TechRadar, Outdoor Fitness, Be Healthy, Top Sante, Doctors.net.uk, Primary Health Care, Community Practitioner, CareKnowledge and The Guardian’s Social Care network.
Away from work, Julie is a huge Sunderland fan, loves watching football, athletics and swimming (live whenever possible!) and is a long-term vegetarian. She also loves to run, swim and practice yoga. Previously, she loved to race too but since 2018, this has been firmly put on the backburner due to her having back-to-back sports injuries, both of which required subsequent surgery. Julie is now gearing up to return to racing via a coastal five miler – it’ll be her first race in five years. If all goes well, half marathons could be on the cards again. Fingers crossed!
Rebecca Frew is a fitness writer at Exceptional. Rebecca has written various articles for newspapers and magazines focusing on fitness and is studying for her Leadership in Running qualification.
When she is not writing or reading about fitness, she is at hot pod yoga, bounce class, training for an ultra-marathon or booking anything with a medal and free food at the end.
Outside of work Rebecca is practicing her Finnish (Hei!) for her dream holiday to Finland next year, and writing her 3rd book while cuddling her cats Giggles and Rebel- the latter of which really lives up to her name!
Steven is a Staff Writer for Fitness at Exceptional, primarily focusing on fitness tech, and how we can use technology to help us achieve our fitness goals. Prior to joining the team, Steven was a freelance writer for a variety of outlets, most notably TechRadar.
His degree in Medieval History prepared him less adequately for his career than you might expect, but the years spent working in technology focused retail were much more helpful.
Outside of work, Steven is passionate about health and fitness, and particularly enjoys high-intensity interval training, weight training, and increasingly, spending time recovering. Steven loves reading, films and a wide variety of sports. A particular highlight was watching Viv Richards and Sachin Tendulkar batting together in an exhibition match.
He wishes he could travel more. He can also tell you a lot about the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, and Carolingians. Most of his non-work time is spent with his young children, who are the living embodiment of high-intensity training.
Amy Cutmore is Editor in Chief for Homes at Exceptional. She’s been writing about interiors for more than 20 years, harking back to the days when glossy red kitchens, toile de Jouy and rag rugs were all the rage, and everyone wanted a Changing Rooms makeover.
You’ll have seen Amy’s work at Britain’s biggest homes titles, including Ideal Home, where she served as Consumer, Technology and Group Digital Editor. She has also edited or written for Homes & Gardens, Livingetc, 25 Beautiful Homes, Real Homes, Gardeningetc, Inside Readers’ Homes, Inspirations for Your Home, Country House & Home, Top Ten Reviews, Trusted Reviews and Country Life. And she’s a winner of the PPA’s Digital Content Leader of the Year.
Amy’s homes knowledge knows no bounds – but her Mastermind-style specialist subjects include kitchen and bathroom design, and technology. For many years, she was Ideal Home’s Girl About Tech, where she spent her days pitting KitchenAid mixers against Kenwoods, attending washing machine launches (in 10 different countries, no less) and ensuring everyone who would listen knew their RMP from their RAM.
Amy rents out three properties, so is always on hand with advice for tenants and landlords alike, and is renovating her own home – a late-Victorian semi in desperate need of a kitchen extension and upstairs bathroom. When it comes to her interior design approach, she is a big fan of teal, can’t resist a statement wallpaper and loves vintage wooden furniture, whether it’s in the form of an old sleigh or a tatty trunk.
Joy Archer is an Editor for Home Passions at Exceptional. Always the intrepid adventurer, Joy arrived in London with little more than a backpack and a dream to live a gorgeous life. This plan first took her to the City of London where she applied her professional journalism qualification to creating digital and print publications for Thomson Reuters.
Yet her passion for interior design could not be ignored. After a two-year bohemian adventure in New York to feed her creative senses, Joy returned to London and enrolled at top interior design school, KLC. She went on to work on a dizzying array of design projects for high-profile clientele served by top studios, including Godrich Design Collective, Louise Jones, Tala Fustok and Dragons of Walton Street.
Joy has also completed a wide array of solo residential and commercial projects in the UK and internationally – House and Garden named her as one of their favourite traditional interior designers and her recent work has featured in 25 Beautiful Homes and on NBC’s Open House TV show.
Never straying far from her pen, Joy’s recent journalism includes pieces highlighting the ins and outs of the evolution of Forbes Monaco; interviews with the creme of social media superstars; intimate insights from Ukrainian political activists and developments in sustainability within built spaces.
Having a geeky obsession with earning expert status on every aspect of construction, Joy’s idea of a good time is pottering about in builder’s yards – she has been known to go to unheard-of lengths to get her hands on particularly fetching samples of marble.
Camilla Sharman is a Staff Writer at Exceptional. Camilla has worked in publishing and marketing for over 30 years and has covered a wide range of sectors within the business and consumer industries both as a feature, content, and freelance writer.
As a business journalist, Camilla has researched articles for many different sectors from the jewellery industry to finance and tech, charities, and the arts. Whatever she’s covered, she enjoys delving deep and learning the ins and out of different topics, then conveying her research within engaging content that informs the reader.
It was when she started her family that her freelance career evolved. Having moved into a period house two days before her first son was born, she had the perfect opportunity to combine working from home with writing about her own house renovation projects. Apart from appearing on the cover of Your Home magazine, Camilla’s written for Ideal Homes, Reals Homes, House Beautiful, and kitchen and bathroom business magazines.
It was inevitable that her interest in all things homes would lead her to writing home interest features. As a young girl she had the earliest version of Pinterest – a scrap book full of home inspiration images cut from magazines.
In her spare time, when she’s not in her kitchen experimenting with a new recipe, you’ll find her keeping fit at the gym. In the pool, stretching at a yoga class, or on a spin bike, exercise is her escape time. She also loves the great outdoors and if she’s not pottering about in her garden, she’ll be jumping on her bike for a gentle cycle ride.
Rosanna Spence is a Staff Writer for Homes at Exceptional. Rosanna has been a journalist for nearly 10 years, reporting on a huge array of topics – from microwaves to cocktails, sustainable buildings, the Caribbean islands and beyond. She’s interviewed chefs at the helm of Michelin-starred restaurants and chatted to countless CEOs about their businesses, as well as created travel guides for experienced travellers seeking life-changing adventures.
Rosanna loves nothing better than getting under the skin of a topic and is led by an unwavering curiosity to share information and stories that inform and inspire her readers – a mission that has taken her around the world. Throughout her career, she has created content for Business Traveller, i-escape.com, Pub & Bar, BRITA, Dine Out and many more leading titles and brands.
She turned her attention to the Homes sector as a result of an ongoing renovation and improvement project, which takes up a fair amount of her time outside of work. When she’s not comparing carpet samples or debating the pros and cons of induction hobs, you’ll find Rosanna exploring Bristol’s food and drink scene, obsessively watching horror films, or donning some walking boots and heading for the hills.
Sarah Harley is a Staff Writer for Homes at Exceptional. Since first picking up a paintbrush and experiencing the joy of re-decorating her bedroom in a questionable red, white and grey scheme as a young teenager, Sarah was hooked on the world of interior design. This obsession even led to a real life ‘Grand Designs’ project in 2005 when she donned a pink hard hat and appeared on TV screens, project managing the renovation and extension of a Grade II listed 17th century Folly in South Wales.
Throughout her career, Sarah has gained an array of experience in several different roles, ranging from copywriting, PR, events management and photography to interior design and home staging. With her two passions being the written word and the joys of a beautifully designed home, Sarah’s mission is to open the door on the world of interiors, inviting readers in to help them work their way through the vast choice of products, ideas and trends so that their own homes can reach their full potential.
Away from work, Sarah fills her Pinterest boards with more ideas, dreams of where to travel, takes photographs and loves being by the sea. She has two sons and if she absorbed everything they said would also be a football expert. The fact is she is often more interested in the colour and design of the kit – but don’t tell them that.
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John McCann is the Editor-in-Chief of Tech at Exceptional. John has been a technology journalist for more than a decade, and over the years has built up a vast knowledge of the tech industry. He’s interviewed CEOs from some of the world’s biggest tech firms, visited their HQs and appeared on live TV and radio, including Sky News, BBC News, BBC World News, Al Jazeera, LBC and BBC Radio 4.
He’s reported on pretty much every area of consumer technology, from laptops, tablets, smartwatches and smartphones to smart speakers, video doorbells, vacuum cleaners, electric cars, headphones and more. During his time in journalism, John has written for Saga Magazine, TechRadar, T3, What Laptop, Windows 8 magazine and Gizmodo UK, and he’s appeared in the Evening Standard and Metro newspapers.
Outside of work, John is a passionate Watford FC and Green Bay Packers fan, enjoys a Sunday afternoon watching the F1, loves a top quality burger or pizza for dinner and is addicted to travel. He’s also a Guinness World Record Holder and appeared in the Olympic Opening Ceremony for the London 2012 games, dressed as one of The Beatles from the Sgt. Pepper’s album cover. He’s even got the pictures to prove it!
Jayne is the Senior Editor for Home Tech. She cut her online journalism teeth 23 years ago in an era when a dialling tone and slow page load were standard. During this time, she’s written about a variety of subjects and is just at home road-testing TVs as she is interviewing TV stars.
A diverse career has seen Jayne launch websites for popular magazines, collaborate with top brands, write regularly for major publications including Yahoo! and The Daily Telegraph, create a podcast, and also write a tech column for Women’s Own.
Her passion for technology began at age 11 when she received a BBC Micro computer one Christmas and became obsessed with beating Chuckie Egg (if you know, you know) and writing simple computer programmes. As her family’s IT department, when she isn’t writing or geeking out about some new tech, she can be found on the floor of her son’s bedroom putting together his latest gaming set-up or helping her dad understand how cloud computing works. Jayne is determined to make technology accessible for everyone because she believes technology should enhance life, not hinder it.
Jayne lives in Kent with a shepsky, her husband and her son, who is attempting to teach her the ways of TikTok, Aston Villa and anime. A keen neurodivergent ally after her son was diagnosed as autistic five years ago, when Jayne does have some rare downtime she enjoys yoga, reading, going to musicals and attempting to emulate Beyonce (poorly) in street dance classes.
Anna-Louise (mostly known as Lou) is Editor in Chief of Exceptional’s newsletters.
A journalist and editor since the ‘90s (when lunches were considerably longer – and louder) she’s written for The Guardian, Total Film, Glamour, Sky and Vogue. She’s also collaborated with huge brands like ASOS, Barclays, House of Fraser and Tesco.
Having cut her teeth in the food and drink industry, she’s been lucky enough to visit vineyards and Michelin star restaurants – as well as much less salubrious, but no less fun destinations. And as editor of a film magazine for six years, she’s interviewed stars like Michael Palin, Sandra Bullock, Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn. She once had a boozy lunch at the Dorchester with Robocop and fell asleep on the train from London, waking up in Nottingham (not her destination).
A Mental Health First Aider, Lou is passionate about wellbeing and happiness, and is constantly seeking out experiences that inspire awe (even the every day, little ones). She has two children, who she managed to get to 18, so is now looking forward to travelling out of the insanely expensive school holidays.
Philip is the Product Tester based at our new test centre in Chippenham. He has spent more than 20 years photographing and handling all manner of products and wares for brands such as T3, What Hi-Fi, Country Life, BBC Countryfile, Homes and Antiques, Ideal Home, Women and Home, Cycling Plus, Cycling Weekly, Tesco. He brings his keen eye for detail and quality to an inherently obsessive nature to seek out practical and useful ways to make sure the products we test come up to the mark.
When not at work his passions have included hi-fi and speaker building to cycling and walking, however his current obsession is for all things coffee, where he like nothing more than to roast a nice Ethiopian natural on his 1.5kg Turkish roaster which he has fully modified with thermocouple probes to measure bean temperature and airflow differential.
Our experienced editorial team is impartial and entirely independent. We never cover or review a product because a company has paid, or even asked, for coverage.
Our expert editorial team decide which products we cover, and our unbiased approach means we won’t pull any punches. If a product doesn’t meet our high standards, we’ll explain why.
We focus on original, accurate and honest content, and enable our team to work free of ethical concerns and conflicts.
Products are reviewed in our state-of-the-art labs to ensure a level playing field for everything which passes through our doors, but we also test products in the real world as well.
This real-world testing ensures we find out how products will fit into your life, and whether they are up to the task and worthy of your hard-earned money.
Many of our review units are provided by the companies who manufacture them, but this does not influence our review process or final verdict. We always return products at the request of the brand or at the end of the agreed loan period.
Experience is important, and here at Exceptional we want to make sure you, our readers, get the chance to celebrate experience with input on our key reviews and articles.
Our Experienced Voices Panel is made up of engaged readers who are passionate and knowledgeable about their topic area of choice.
If you’re interested in joining the Experienced Voices Panel, please get in touch with us at gareth.beavis@saga.co.uk
As a part of Saga, at Exceptional we’re passionate about championing diversity, equity, inclusion, and a sense of belonging. This means our teams are diverse, recruited through an actively barrier-free, fair, objective, and inclusive process that focuses solely upon work criteria and individual merit.
We also want our website, social media, newsletters and video content to reflect our readers, meaning our images and our Experienced Voices panel should reflect YOU. You are the centre of our world at Exceptional, and so it’s vital that you feel like you belong.