Our Team

Michael Bangerter has written for both stage and radio, is a reviewer, and has published four collections of poetry. He studied at the RADA and Lancaster University (MA), and has appeared many times in the theatre, in films, and on television. A qualified teacher, he has taught in HE.

Book reviews: ‘Freezing the Frame’: ‘the book is a rarity… a satisfying collection that I will read again’ (Envoi). ‘He uses language effectively and sparingly … his immense talent’ (The Journal). ‘The Fat Lady Sings’: ‘Bangerter’s fluent, supple, musical and never contrived poems are a pleasure to read’ (NHI Online).

Graham Bishop has 20 years' experience teaching in secondary schools and Further Education. He has written several French text books for these levels and is familiar with examination demands having been a Chief Examiner for French A level, marked GCSE for many years and been Deputy Director of an Examination Board. He is now a lecturer and course book writer at the Open University, regularly producing course and assessment material for HE.

Alison Boyle is a children's author, and a book reviewer for The Times supplements' early years magazine. Her books include Baby Bear Beware! (Scholastic), Wishing Bird (Puffin), Where is Little Croc? (Walker Books), The Dance of The Eagle and The Fish (Milet), and How Bees Be (Milet).

Julia Copus received an Eric Gregory Award for her poetry in 1994. Her first book The Shuttered Eye (1995) won a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Her second book In Defence of Adultery (2003) is also a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Her play Eenie Meenie Macka Racka was broadcast on Radio 4 in 2003. She has won a host of other awards including a Writer's Award from the Arts Council of England and an Authors' Foundation grant from the Society of Authors.

Julia has tutored on prestigious courses at the Arvon Foundation, Ty Newydd, BBC/Gulbenkian Foundation, Bolton Institute and Oxford University. She has also been appointed Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Exeter University.

Frances Cross has been writing professionally for about 15 years, mainly for children. Recent titles include the Blobber Trilogy (Ransom Publishing, 2006). Other publications include English second language books for Macmillan UK, and an autobiography, Life is a Sweeter Song (U.S.A., 1996). She has extensive experience within educational writing and editing, mainly in Southern Africa, and taught Creative Writing for the Department of Continuing Education for the University of Wales for a number of years. She was also a member of the Arts Council of Wales' Writers on Tour scheme, running writing workshops and courses to participants in North Wales.

Leigh Ferrani is author of Indigo Flats. She ghost-wrote the autobiography For Crying Out Loud, a harrowing account of domestic abuse.

She trained at The Academy of Live and Recorded Arts and went on to run Theatre Unlimited with two colleagues. They produced an Alan Ayckbourn play at the Mermaid Theatre, Blackfriars, and toured with a comedy/musical revue Clutching at Straws, which she co-wrote.

She has written scripts for Radio Inc., worked in television, written voice-overs and has been a journalist, columnist, travel writer and astrologer. She also edits manuscripts, film and TV scripts, and websites.

Helen Gough is a freelance editor specialising mainly in academic books, papers and journals. She has extensive experience of copy-editing, rewriting and proof-reading and has worked for a variety of organisations - most recently Lawtext Publishing, the Voltaire Foundation and Templeton College, where she wrote and edited the alumni magazine - and individuals. Much of her work has been for authors whose first language is not English, and has involved a considerable amount of rewriting. She has written for a local business magazine and has edited several books on management. She has also indexed several management text books.

Jonathan Hayden has 14 years’ editorial experience working for a
diverse range of leading publishers including: Cambridge University
Press, Constable, Andre Deutsch, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Random House, Serpent’s Tail and Verso.
He has worked as a Literature Officer for Arts Council England.
A poet in his own right, he has also published poems in leading
literary journals such as London Magazine.

Majella Hurley is a Voice and Dialect Coach who has worked extensively in theatre, television and film.

She has been the dialect coach on 10 films including Sleepy Hollow, The Prince & The Pauper and Wimbledon.

Her television credits include: BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, Channel 4, Granada, ITV and Meridian. Her radio credits include Radio 3, Radio 4 and BBC World Service.

She has also worked on over 20 theatre productions.

She has an Advanced Diploma in Voice Studies from the Central School of Speech & Drama.

Julie La'Bassiere is a marketing and special events professional with 10
years’ diverse experience in the film, music and fashion industries.

She has worked as a consultant, publicist and event planner for various
independent film production and exhibition companies developing publicity
and marketing campaigns.

La'Bassiere has also provided strategic and creative consultancy for
filmmakers and producers that has included script development, rough-cut
evaluation, and international co-production advice.

La’Bassiere most recently contributed celebrity profiles for a book called
Hip Hollywood Homes (Clarkson Potter, September 2006).

She is COO, Marketing and Strategic Partnerships, for indieIN. Inc.

Sam Jordison devised the best-selling humour book Crap Towns I which has sold 120,000 copies in the UK. He is also author of Crap Towns II and The Joy of Sects. He has worked as a freelance journalist for newspapers including The Guardian, The Independent, The Times and The Telegraph. He has also worked as a copywriter and sub-editor for Channel 4's website.

Eloise Millar's first novel (Wednesday's Child, Virago 2005) has been shortlisted for the YoungMinds Award. Her second novel, a murder mystery set in 17th century London, has been commissioned by TimeWarner. She has worked as a freelance copy-editor for publishers Taylor & Francis; and as a sub-editor for The Guardian Unlimited. She has received awards from The Arts Council and The Author's Foundation.

Peter G. Morgan is a writer and producer. He has written several TV and radio scripts and recently produced a critically acclaimed drama documentary for BBC2, If Cloning Could Cure Us. He has won the Society of Authors New Writing Award for his radio drama and been nominated for a Sony Award. He is currently researching Martini Modern: a history of Palm Springs, California, to be published by Bloomsbury in 2007.  Before becoming a full-time writer, Peter was a reporter on Channel 4 News, where he won BAFTA and Amnesty International awards for his coverage of the wars in the former Yugoslavia.

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 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 latest 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'.

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 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.

David Roach is an experienced freelance copywriter. Since 1992 he has written speeches, scripts, advertising copy, travel articles, brochures, web copy, press releases and pitches.

He has ghost-written the autobiographies of two ex-international rugby players: Rupert Moon and Mervyn Davies. Full Moon: Rugby in the Red (Mainstream) was published in 2002 and In Strength & Shadow: the Mervyn Davies Story (Mainstream) in 2004.

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.

Jacquie Shanahan is a marketing specialist with 20 years' experience in the publishing industry. She began in European sales at Macmillan, moved to an editorial development role at Pitman (Pearson), and worked for many years as Commissioning Editor and Publisher at Butterworth Heinemann.

She has also been Head of Market Development at Elsevier's professional/educational books division, with responsibility for a global marketing team.

Emily Smith is a prize-winning children's author. Her books include Astrid the Au Pair from Outer Space, The Shrimp, and Joe v The Fairies (Young Corgi titles). She has also written What Howls at the Moon in Frilly Knickers? and When Mum Threw Out the Telly (Orchard Books). She has books due out in 2006 and 2007.

Emily has won two Smarties awards (a gold and a silver) and been shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Awards.

Brenda Stones is ex-Publishing Director of Oxford University Press and an experienced freelance editor. She has 30 years' experience in educational publishing, working for publishers including HarperCollins, Macmillan, Pearson, Hutchinson, Cambridge University Press, and Walker Books. She is director of Pisces Press, a poetry press and self-publishing service.

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 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, the most recent being Keeping Mum (Atlantic, 2006). The sequel to this last work will be published in February 2007.

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.

Screenplay Consultant - our consultant, who prefers to remain anonymous, has written three feature films. His most recent film appeared in mainstream cinemas in 2006.
He spent 5 years as a writer at the BBC Light Entertainment Department, working on the production of over 90 shows. He has had sketches broadcast on TV and radio programmes including Alas Smith & Jones, Weekending and Naked Video.