About Ellie

Ellie Phant has been a journalist longer than some other people. 5 times divorced she began her career at The Penge Chronicle as their Sewage Quality correspondent. She moved into TV and presented Oi Britain! But unfortunately her career was cut short when rumours of her affair with Paul the weatherman and cocaine filled nights with Fred Dibnah made prime time news.

Ellie returned to The Chronicle and this time found herself elevated to ‘Ask Ellie’ Penge’s number one Agony Aunt where she dispatched bad advice to the residents of Penge. A series of unfortunate events culminating in the headline ‘Ellie told me to kill my hamster’ meant that she parted with the Penge Chronicle for the final time in 2001.

From 2001-2012 she concentrated on her role as gin taster for Gin Daily, interrupted only by a brief foray into publishing. Sadly the lack of critical acclaim for the ghost written autobiography ‘Steve Brookstein, my guide to success in the music industry’ and ‘Sewage Processing Plants of Penge – A definitive guide’, meant that Ellie was free to concentrate solely on her first love, Gin and began her research into ‘Gins of Penge’.

A short period of happiness followed for Ellie when she married her 5th husband, friend and photographer Peter Simpkin, who had contributed to her magnum opus ‘Sewage Processing Plants of Penge – A definitive guide’. Sadly the marriage ended on grounds of irreconcilable differences after Ellie discovered her husband had secretly published his photographs as an art calendar entitled ‘Penge: A Sewage Eye View’. A project that proved significantly more successful than their joint venture.

Following their acrimonious break up, Ellie threw herself into her work ‘Gins of Penge AND Stoke Poges, a work very much in progress.

She now lives in a converted sewage works apartment in Penge’s docklands area with her Gambian Pouched Rats, Ant and Dec and writes (when sober) for Elephant Juice. She is always open to suggestions for assignations of sexual impropriety.

After a mix up in the Mayor’s Office in Ellie was awarded the freedom of Penge in 2006. She has exploited this ever since.