Melissa Twigg

Melissa Twigg is a feature writer at The Telegraph who treats fashion, culture and social systems as parts of the same story rather than separate beats. Her work links individual lives to institutions, exploring how taste, status, regulation and health intersect in modern Britain and beyond. She joined The Telegraph as a fashion editor in 2020 before moving to the features desk in 2022, after more than a decade reporting internationally and winning a Society of Asian Publishers Award for her coverage of the rhino horn trade. Alongside this, she writes about music and pop icons when they illuminate shifts in British cultural life, including coverage of Madonna’s recent move to London and support for British talent.

Britain's fashion industry and fashion heirs

Fashion is the backbone of Twigg’s portfolio, but she treats it as economics, heritage and daily life rather than surface style. In a piece arguing that Britain’s fashion industry is not “fluff” and is worth £60bn, she sets out the sector’s economic weight alongside its cultural influence, showing how policy and broadcasting attitudes can undervalue it. Her writing on Dame Mary Quant’s memorial focuses on the designer’s commitment to clothes women could dance in, drawing a line between historic innovation and contemporary ideas of freedom and movement.

In a guide to wearing bonnets now, she uses a period-drama accessory to talk about how nostalgia feeds into current street style and how readers can translate runway references into practical outfits. She also profiles the heirs to fashion dynasties such as the Arnault and Pinault families, examining how succession, corporate power and personal identity play out in billion-pound brands.

Across these pieces, the fashion beat becomes a way to discuss class, entrepreneurship, family legacy and the place of British designers in a global market.

Everyday systems under strain: the NHS, funerals and weight loss jabs

Twigg’s features often centre on systems that shape ordinary lives, from healthcare to funerals and pharmaceutical trends. In a detailed report on the NHS, she describes staff trying to deliver high-quality care while working with outdated infrastructure, including buckets catching drips, to show how physical decay reflects deeper organisational strain. Her investigation into funeral homes highlights how minimal regulation allows almost anyone with basic equipment to operate as a funeral director, raising questions about dignity, consumer protection and oversight at one of life’s most sensitive moments.

A piece on weight loss jabs such as Ozempic argues that these drugs are not only changing bodies but suppressing appetite for adventure, pleasure and risk, foregrounding the psychological and social consequences of medicalised weight control.

These stories share a method: human-focused narratives, vivid detail and careful use of expert voices to reveal how policy, commerce and culture affect individual choices. The result is coverage that makes complex systems legible without losing sight of the people living inside them.

Royal family, broadcasters and cultural icons

Another strand of Twigg’s work tracks how institutions and high-profile figures navigate shifting public sentiment, often through property, money and media narratives. In her analysis of palatial homes with peppercorn rents, she looks at residences linked to the Royal family and how favourable arrangements can become reputational headaches, tying housing, privilege and accountability together.

Her reporting on Africa turning its back on Prince Harry explores the disconnect between personal advocacy and geopolitical realities, showing how a once-sympathetic audience reassesses a royal figure. A profile of a “millionaire Marxist” who became a political problem for the BBC examines activism, wealth and public broadcasting, charting how one individual tests the boundaries of neutrality and institutional image.

Twigg’s feature on Strictly Come Dancing hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman explains how they became national sweethearts, blending television history, performance style and audience affection into a story about enduring broadcast personas.

Her Cotswolds estate agent piece traces how Jeremy Clarkson’s presence and American buyers helped drive a property boom, using one region to illustrate how celebrity and foreign capital reshape local markets. Within this context, her coverage of Madonna’s move to London and investment in British talent fits a wider pattern: she uses cultural icons to explore how global fame, domestic industries and public perceptions interact.

Feature reporting across institutions and personal choices

Twigg’s features consistently rely on deep reporting and strong narrative structure, whether she is writing about organ donation, healthcare or fashion. In her piece on altruistic organ donation, she enters the “extreme world” of young men giving organs to strangers, exploring motivations, ethics and the medical framework that supports such decisions. The Cotswolds estate agent diary format allows her to combine character sketches with market analysis, turning local anecdotes into a picture of broader economic change.

Across articles dealing with the NHS, funeral regulation and weight loss drugs, she returns to the friction between official systems and private experience, showing how policy decisions land in hospital corridors, mortuaries and living rooms. Her earlier international work on the rhino horn trade, which received a Society of Asian Publishers Award, reflects the same interest in the junction of crime, conservation and livelihoods. Today, as a feature writer who moved from fashion editing to a broader remit, she brings that investigative and narrative discipline to a wide range of topics, from fashion dynasties to royal property, activist movements and the ethics of body modification.

For stories that sit between culture, economics and social policy, her byline signals a piece that will be grounded in reporting and structured around the people living the consequences.