About “Vicky Ward Investigates”
The great thing about having a Substack newsletter is that frees you from your “brand”. It might seem a strange thing to say, but I have been labelled throughout my 30 year plus career as an “investigative journalist,” which, yes, I am…but what does that actually mean?
It means, yes, as one of my bosses once described me: I am “very nosy, and very pushy!” And that – and, let’s be honest, a mix of blonde hair and a British accent – has gotten me over the years into rooms I shouldn’t have been in, talking to people who probably shouldn’t have talked to me. (“She’s a killer” is I was described among a certain elite crowd at one point” and I took that as a big compliment). It also means that whenever I flick through my contacts, I see a heck of a lot of people who either hold power, or have held power – and, also quite a few who have been in prison!
And, yes, I am proud of some of the very serious investigative work I’ve done, the best-selling books on Lehman Brothers, the GM building, and Jared Kushner; The podcasts on Jeffrey Epstein and the Supreme Court. The many articles for Vanity Fair, which included articles on both Bernie Madoff and Kate Moss and much in between. The work at CNN. And I’m excited for you to read my next book, out on July 14, about the college murders in Moscow, Idaho, with James Patterson: The Idaho Four. (Which is NOT just a book about the college murders, btw. It’s a book about small town America and where we all are, culturally, right now).
BUT part of the frustration of writing books and doing deep-dives is that I get pigeon-holed as someone hellbent on exposing corruption everywhere I go… when, in fact, there’s so much variety of topics I’m interested in, and hitherto there’s never been an outlet where I have the freedom and time to write about all of it. But, trust me, I am just as interested in as Meghan Markle as I am in Donald Trump.
And here on Vicky Ward Investigates, I get to let loose and write about all of it. I get to introduce you to some of the “characters” whom I’ve met along the way in my video live chats. And I get to surprise you with my choice of subjects and – sometimes sources. (A lot of readers message me, saying they were shocked I was able to get to the cousin of Asma Assad). But that’s the whole point….
One of my twin 22-year-old sons, Orlando said to me recently: “Mom, we don’t know anyone else who works so hard for so little”…
Ahem. Well, yes, no one goes into journalism for the big bucks. Which is why I am so very grateful to those of you who pay for the newsletters.
So please do subscribe here and encourage others to. I am soon starting a weekly video chat soon that will be just for paid subscribers.
But, as I told Orlando, I write this newsletter because …well, because I love it. I love being nosy, and pushy…and, yes sometimes causing trouble. And I feel privileged to have a career in which I am never, ever bored.
So, I hope you enjoy reading and watching Vicky Ward Investigates as much as I enjoy creating it.
And I sincerely hope that on this journey you’ll never be bored.
