Claire Soares, contact@clairesoares.com was born in Bedford, England, daughter to Allan Soares (ex- Dar es Salaam who is now a lecturer at the University of Birmingham - for photo and bio click here) and Carol Lowcock (Kirkham); sister to Andrew. She is the grand-daughter of Celsa Soares nee Viegas from Assagao and Albino Soares (Uccasaim). The Soares family lived in Dar es Salaam ,Tanzania, where Albino worked for East African Railways, before moving to England in 1966. On her father's maternal side, one of her great-uncles was Gines Viegas, the proprietor of the legendary restaurant O'Coqueiro in Porvorim, Goa.

A Cambridge languages graduate, Claire started her journalistic career as a Correspondent for Reuters in London. She went on to take postings in Washington -- where her second day at work was Sept 11 2001 -- and then Rome, where she covered Italian politics and culture and the Vatican. She then spent three years as a freelance journalist and photographer covering West and Central Africa, reporting on refugees from Darfur, the illegal migrant exodus from Senegal, and landmark elections in Liberia. Her photographs have appeared on the front pages of the New York Times and Le Monde. She is now Assistant Foreign Editor at The Independent, London.

For a link to some of her recent articles for The Independent, click here.