“Turn your light off.”
“Just one more chapter.”
“That’s what you said an hour ago!”
Anyone browsing this site started the same way I did; with a love of books – stories, facts, recipes, fine writing and ideas.
After getting a BA in British history and English literature at Barnard College, part of Columbia University in New York, I worked for WABC, then the highest-rated, top-40 station in the largest market in the USA. Marrying an Englishman got me into BBC Radio 3 and 4, where my job was to talent scout for new writers, ideas and books – often in typescript but sometimes in manuscript. I helped to launch successive series of daily arts programming, ran the Radio Science Unit briefly and produced prize-winning documentaries.
I was Chief Producer, Arts, Science and Features, BBC Radio when I retired early in 1997 to begin trading as an agent. Even though I’d never had a publishing job, I’d learned a lot about what publishers need from authors and agents. Which I still do my utmost to provide! Nearly all my writers were newcomers when I began working with them, including the bestsellers.