Editing, manuscripts & literary work
I like the stage of a piece when it has already become recognisably itself, but is still carrying around the little excesses and uncertainties that writing tends to collect on the way. Perhaps it is an argument that knows where it is going but has taken the scenic route, or a paragraph whose best sentence is buried somewhere in the middle, or a manuscript with three different ideas about punctuation, or prose that is technically sound and yet, somehow, no longer sounds like the person who wrote it. That is usually where I come in.
My work is primarily editorial, with a particular interest in books, journals, literary and cultural writing, educational material and long-form work that requires close attention. I copyedit, proofread, research, review manuscripts and work through drafts at sentence level, but I am not terribly interested in editing as a process of making everything smoother, neater and more alike. Some sentences ought to remain odd. Some rhythms are worth protecting. A writer’s habits are not automatically faults simply because a style guide has never met them before.
Manuscripts, journals & editorial research
I am especially drawn to editorial work around literary and academic publishing: manuscript preparation, editorial research, peer-review support, source checking and consistency work.
Research, for me, is part detective work and part housekeeping. I like finding the original source of a quotation, noticing when a date has migrated by a year somewhere between drafts, checking whether an assertion actually says what its citation is being asked to prove, and turning a heap of notes into something an editor can use without developing a headache.
Writing
I also take on selected writing commissions, particularly literary criticism, reviews, essays, cultural commentary, educational writing and researched long-form pieces.
If you want to know what I sound like before asking me to write something, I would much rather you read the work than take my word for it. Moorland & Mayfair is where most of that voice lives. Read my essays →
Selected editorial work
The Apollonian: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies
Editorial research, manuscript copyediting and peer-review work.
History and Art Journal
Peer Reviewer for scholarly work in literature and the humanities.
Moorland & Mayfair
Literary essays, reviews and cultural criticism.
If you have something you would like me to read
If you are working on a manuscript, essay, journal piece or editorial project and think I might be useful, send me a note through the Contact page with a little about the work, its approximate length, where it currently stands and what sort of help you are looking for.
