Working with Ann Suster and Tony Whittome, my name soon got passed round to other editors in the Hutchinson and Century fiction departments. Eventually, I started working with one of Century Books’ co-founders Rosie De Courcy, who also handled some of the big name non-fiction titles. Quietly spoken, immaculately well…

Now where was I? … Here in the UK we are still enduring, hopefully, the last lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic that started in early 2020. It has been a weird time and finding headspace to write has been difficult. It has been a few months, but I’m back on it now! — Towards the end of 1988 the announcement was made that Chatto, Jonathan Cape, Chatto Poetry and The Hogarth Press were to become part of Random House Group. This would also mean a move from Chatto’s lovely Georgian offices in Bedford Square to Random House HQ that occupied a modern building…

Autumn 1988

When we write down our stories it is very tempting to only portray the best version of a career or a life, but, it is never all plain sailing. When you start working for yourself the stones in the road can appear more like boulders and hurt just as much! …

At the beginning of 1988, and still at Slatter-Anderson, I was getting busier with self-employed work. I was being commissioned by Transworld books, plus regular cartoon and design jobs for Video Arts. Meanwhile, at Slatter-Anderson I was working on an extensive test packaging project for Elida Gibbs for All Clear…

Six months after joining Slatter-Anderson, I was offered work on a freelance, rather than a permanent basis. Looking back on that often intense and chaotic time, I’m sure it had a lot to do with their tax position and off loading full-time employees. To their credit, my then current bosses…

About half the work that came into Slatter-Anderson in my day was publicity and promotion, the majority of which arrived from Century-Hutchinson publicity director Susan Lamb. Susan had a fearsome reputation and mistakes were never an option. Susan got on well with Robin Anderson and saw him as a safe…

My 20 months at Slatter-Anderson were a blur… Learning a lot in a short space of time, I worked on a truly diverse range of design jobs, from book covers, publicity and point of sale publishing to cosmetic and haircare packaging for Elida Gibbs and promotional work for fashion designer…

April 1986 — After clearing my desk at Sphere Books on Friday afternoon, Monday morning found me sitting down at a corner desk of the Riverside Studios in Fulham. Perched on the north bank of the Thames with a view of Brompton reservoir and the most spectacular sunsets in West London, I was…