I’m a professional editor based in London, UK, specialising in business and non-fiction content.
Professional background
Before turning to freelance editing, I spent 20 years working for Zenith, a media agency, as a researcher, analyst, forecaster, writer and editor. As a manager in Zenith’s Global Intelligence department, I had responsibility for developing new forecasts and business reports from concept to finished product; these were sold to clients around the world including media companies, investment banks and academic institutions.
A large part of my role involved editing work written by non-native English speakers to render it in polished, professional business English, so I have considerable experience at this. If you’re writing in English as a second or third language, you’ll find me to be a helpful and sympathetic editor.
Education and training
I have a BA (Hons) degree in Chinese Studies and Social & Political Science from the University of Cambridge. Like many writers and editors, I’ve always been fascinated by languages in general, so my degree was a perfect fit for my interests. Not only did I have the opportunity to study modern Mandarin and classical Chinese, but I was also able to delve deeper into language acquisition and use through modules in developmental psychology and psycholinguistics on the social science side.
In addition, I have a diploma in mathematics from the Open University. A list of the modules I studied with the OU is available on request.
I’m a Professional Member of the CIEP, the professional body for editors and proofreaders in the UK, and I’ve taken the following training courses with them:
Proofreading 1: introduction
Proofreading 2: headway
Copy-editing 1: introduction
Copy-editing 2: headway
Copy-editing 3: progress
Editing Digital Content
Interests
I’m a passionate lover of recreational language learning. In addition to rusty Mandarin, I speak fluent French, reasonable German, and a smattering of Dutch, Italian and Czech. I’m currently attempting Icelandic, which is proving to be a bit tricky. If all things language-related appeal to you too, don’t forget to take a look at my language blog, where I ponder all sorts of ideas related to language and languages.
When I don’t have my head in a book or a language course, you’re most likely to find me on Discord, chatting about my favourite Icelandic musicians.
