News

Brighton Festival 2011 brochure launch

This month saw the launch of Brighton Festival 2011, the biggest multi-arts festival in England. For the last three months I have been working with the Festival and a host of international artists, companies and directors to create all the copy for the 200 plus events featured in the new brochure. As ever it has been an exciting and rewarding challenge, and has been great to work with Brighton agency Harrison again. Artistic director for Festival 2011 is Burmese freedom fighter and political leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and many of the events are themed around subjects close to her heart, from human rights issues and the pursuit of political democracy to Beethoven’s late sonatas. Roll on May!

For full case study click here

We all need a master plan!

Local Brighton thriller writer Charles Bancroft recently published his second novel Masterplan, the fast-paced sequel to his first Rob Gilbert story, The Architect. I worked very closely with the author on his manuscript from general copy-editing to restructuring. Charles was, understandably, a little nervous about handing his ‘baby’ over to an editor and recognised that ‘the balance between grooming a book and damaging it is a very fine line and fraught with dangers.’ The whole process, though, was a blast, a refreshing change for me to be working direct with an author, rather than a publishing house, and a less daunting experience than the author had imagined:

‘Writing style is a part of the creative mix and tidying up grammar without losing my quirky style was a huge challenge for Max. However, I needn’t have worried, his attention to detail was amazing and he somehow managed to weave “proper writing” around my complex plot without losing the dynamic or my precious characters. His fastidious cross referencing to my first novel, The Architect, and constant ‘testing’ of the interlocking timelines was incredible and saved me from more than a few disastrous space-time anomalies.’ Charles Bancroft

Charles is currently working on the last part of his trilogy, Deadline.