Our Aim
Hope Lives Here takes its name from a mural created by Vân and encapsulates our collective approach to promoting the untold stories of under represented members of our community.
We would love to hear and share your ideas with a wider audience whether it be fiction or non fiction for the adult or children’s market.
Our Team
Journalist Andrea Perry met graphic designer Vân Dang met while working on local community projects in Thornton Heath. They inspired each other to use their skills to promote creativity and compassion promoting diversity and equality.
The pair set up The Chronicle from scratch which is a well respected newspaper which has been thriving for five years. They have subsequently worked on a number of projects together and produced a children’s book which focusses on how we are all special whatever our differences.
ANDREA PERRY
Andrea is an award winning journalist with over three decades of experience working on local and national newspapers.
She covered many high profile murder cases and trials while Crime Editor on The Sunday Express both here and abroad including the Soham murders of 10-year-old’s Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. She investigated their killer Ian Huntley for a post trial report and also covered the missing person hunt for Milly Dowler which became a murder inquiry and resulted in the conviction of Levi Bellfield who went on to kill two further women before his arrest.tower
Her seven years covering crime saw her tackle some tough stories including the murder of PC Sharon Beshenivsky who was shot dead on her daughter’s birthday, the horrific sex trafficking case of a young woman from Lithuania, The Railway Rapists, and Suffolk Strangler. She also investigated the deaths of four young army recruits who died from gunshot wounds at Deepcut barracks in Surrey.
In America she reported on the infamous Operation Ore investigation where thousands of users of a website featuring child pornography, including many high profile figures, were exposed.
In Italy, Andrea reported on a Mafia case in to the murder of Roberto Calvi, dubbed God’s Banker who was found hanging under a bridge in London.
At the height of the terrorism atrocity she covered the 9/11, 7/7 and 21/7 and attacks in New York and London. She also reported on the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell station.
Her awards were for uncovering a child abuse scandal in Lambeth, exposing council mismanagement which led to a gas explosion at a block and a feature on kerb crawling and prostitution
For many years she wrote a highly popular satirical column about political life in South London
A great advocate of local news reporting in 2016 she set up The Thornton Heath Chronicle, one of the most diverse newspapers in the country, which she continues to edit.
VÂN DANG
With a Master Degree in Design for Interaction, Vân has been working as a graphic and web designer for 20 years. She believes in girl power and hopes to bring her skills in art and design to share with other people – to express the attitude and values that we stand for.