Oxford Literary Consultancy - Editorial Services & Advice for Authors, founder Stephanie Hale

Julie Maclusky
Julie Maclusky has been a professor of screen and script writing in Hollywood and the UK. She's taught at two of the most honoured film schools in America, the University of Southern California and Chapman University. She's author of the acclaimed Is There Life After Film School? (Continuum, 2003) and various broadcast documentaries. Her professional writing includes work as a broadcast journalist and researcher with the BBC, Channel 4 and The Clive James Show. Her screenplays have been optioned and she's also written on commission. Her feature scripts include Outback, Der Perfecte Plan, Vermin Exterminator and Widows. She's been a voting member of BAFTA and a judge for the Arizona Film Festival. She's also former Director of the Bangor International and Independent Film Festival.

Nicholas McInerny
Nicholas McInerny has written for stage, TV, radio and film. Stage work includes shows at The ICA, Orange Tree and Soho Theatre. TV work includes over thirty episodes for series like Always & Everyone and The Bill, as well as selling a number of original formats. He has written over 20 plays for radio, several of which have been nominated for the Prix Italia, as well as screenplays for the BBC and Paramount. He was the Creative Arts Fellow for Wolfson College and has taught at many universities, including UEA, Birmingham and Oxford University’s Diploma and Masters courses.

Elizabeth North
Elizabeth North started her writing career in radio (four plays and an award-winning classic serial adaptation). She has published eight novels and contributed short stories to anthologies and magazines. She has been teaching creative writing since the 1970s. Of her novel Dames it was said: 'She has all the virtues of the English social novelist'. And of Ancient Enemies: 'Fast and funny: Move over Holden Caulfield: here comes 16-year-old Petra, his eighties female counterpart'.

Tim Pears
Tim Pears is author of four novels. His first novel, In the Place of Fallen Leaves (1993), won both the Hawthornden Prize and the Ruth Hadden Memorial Award. His second novel, In a Land of Plenty (1997), was filmed for BBC television and first screened in 2001. A Revolution of the Sun (2000), weaves together the stories of seven disparate characters whose lives are changed irrevocably over the course of a year. His book, Wake Up (2002), is a tale of genetic engineering and one greengrocer's dream of edible vaccines. A.S. Byatt has praised his writing as being 'comic and wry and elegiac and shrewd and thoughtful at once'.

Elisabeth Pinto
Elisabeth Pinto has worked as a script editor, reader and producer since 2002 - for companies including Impact Pictures, Brilliant Films and Focus Features. Her experience includes assessing both novels and screenplays for the screen and all genres and ambitions, from UK indie scripts to big budget Hollywood films. As well as providing script analysis, Elisabeth is uniquely placed to assess a screenplay's position in the market place - something no screenwriter can do without.

Linda Proud
Linda Proud is author of the critically acclaimed A Tabernacle for the Sun (1997). She has published eight books including 2 novels and one work of fiction for children. Awards for her writing include a Southern Arts bursary in 1996 and a Hawthornden Fellowship in 1998. She has given one-to-one creative writing tuition for American universities with programmes in Oxford over the past 10 years. She also runs her own publishing company, Godstow Press, to publish spiritual/philosophical literature - fiction, plays, poetry and music.

Matthew J. Reisz
Matthew J. Reisz is a writer, editor and journalist. He is the author of Europe's Jewish Quarters (Simon & Schuster, 1991); two books translated from French; and a long article about his grandmother's relationship with sexologist Havelock Ellis (Granta, 2005). He has written features, profiles and reviews for most of the national press including the Guardian, Independent, Observer, Sunday Times, Telegraph and Daily Mail. He has researched, written and presented programmes for BBC Radio 4. He has worked in both general and management publishing, for publishers including Penguin Books. Since 1998, he has been the Editor of the Jewish Quarterly. His Booklover's Companion (Folio Society, 2006) is an anthology celebrating the joys of reading.

Eva Salzman
Eva Salzman's books The English Earthquake (Bloodaxe), Bargain with the Watchman (Oxford), One Two II (Wrecking Ball Press) and Double Crossing (Bloodaxe) are all Poetry Book Society Recommendations/Special Commendations. Her work has frequently been broadcast on BBC radio, and she has given readings at the Royal Festival Hall, the Barbican, the Poetry Society and at festivals all over the UK, as well as in Ireland, Spain and France. She has won 2nd Prize in the National Poetry Competition and major prizes in the Arvon and Cardiff Poetry Competitions. Grants and awards include those from the Arts Council, Royal Literary Fund, London Arts Board and the Society of Authors. She has also been appointed Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Warwick University.

Rachel Thackray Jones
Rachel Thackray Jones won the Random House Fellowship while studying for a Creative Writing MA with poet laureate, Andrew Motion. She is author of 20/20 Hindsight, (Virgin Business Guides) a guide to entrepreneurship. She has worked as a freelance writer and editor for publications including The Independent, The Guardian and The Good Book Guide. She has worked for HRH The Prince of Wales, writing and editing material for his organisations. Her writing has been shortlisted for the Asham Award and the Catherine Pakenham Award.

Brian Thompson
Brian Thompson wrote for radio and television from 1973-1990. He has never counted the number of scripts, though they include: Send in the Girls, Black Silk, Crown Court, The XYY Man, Funny Man, Rockcliffe's Babies, Chelworth, Bramwell, Yes We Have no Bananas etc etc. He is the author of seven stage plays, three of them produced by Alan Ayckbourn. He has written four novels and five non-fiction books, including Keeping Mum (Atlantic, 2006) which won a Costa Book Award in 2007.

Paul Wheatley
Paul Wheatley is a published poet and professional copywriter. In 2003, he created and produced The Poets Chair, an extensive film archive of Ireland's best poets. Prior to this, he was a proposal writer for the English National Opera, and has also worked as marketing manager for The Civic Trust, where he wrote adverts, brochures and promotional material. His poetry has been extensively published in national literary journals. Paul has a Creative Writing MPhil from Trinity College, Dublin, and a Creative Writing Diploma from the University of Oxford.

Chris Ashbrook
Chris Ashbrook has worked on commercials and classical music films for many years (Zukerman, Barenboim, DuPre, etc.) He later moved on to feature films, working with directors including: Ken Russell, Ridley Scott and Mike Reynolds amongst others.

He became a director of photography in 1980 and subsequently, director/cameraman, moving between features and commercials, both here and the United States (and shot a slew of music videos for bands including Eurythmics, The Cure,Wham, David Bowie, Bryan Ferry and George Michael.)

While in California, he became involved in screen writing, mainly to help young directors on debut films and soon found himself editing scripts for a number of directors.

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