I’ve loved reading for as long as I can remember, and growing up there was never any question that I would go on to study English literature at university, which I did up to a Master’s degree. Since then, I have read many hundreds of books, always staying open and curious to all sorts of genres and forms—truly the best training I could think of for an editor. 

When I set up The Unseen Review book club in 2022 (titled something else at the time), I feel like I reached an even deeper level of engagement with my reading. In conversation with readers from all over the world, I was able to build on my academic knowledge in a more relaxed setting, whilst also thinking more deeply about the novel as an artform, and what might make it successful (or not!) for the reader. That is to say, that I began to think a lot more about the craft of a novel in its more elemental sense.

For over ten years I’ve also reviewed books online, old and new, which has put me in touch with many publishers, and given me a really good sense of what’s out there and what the market looks like, especially for literary and speculative fiction.