As a PhD student in the late 90s I often helped visiting academics and international students polish their work. This taught me early on that no matter how many superficial errors a piece of writing may have, it is easy to edit if the underlying thought is clear. (These days, with Generative AI, I would also say the converse: if text is based on no underlying thought at all, it is impossible to edit no matter how superficially perfect.)
Between 2000 and 2008 I worked in charities and NGOs in Scotland, caught up in the enthusiasm for democracy and international development generated by the creation of the Scottish Parliament and the declaration of the Millennium Development Goals. In July 2005, as the director of the campaigning charity Jubilee Scotland, I helped organise the Make Poverty History march in Edinburgh—a moment of great optimism.
But the development charities set themselves goals that seemed impossible, despite the heroic efforts of their staff and volunteers, and I usually felt most satisfied when helping a colleague rephrase the text of a report or design a leaflet: for at least then there would be a concrete outcome, a polished document and a happier colleague.
After the Great Crash of 2008 it was clear that tide of enthusiasm for democracy and development was already receding. I resigned from my post and began copyediting, beginning with small jobs referred by academic friends, and building up to full time as my network grew. (It was also around then that I formed the activist band Reason Breeds Monsters with brilliant musicians from York.)
I have never lost my enthusiasm for producing a nicely finished document and satisfying a client, and I am continually delighted to be introduced to new areas of knowledge through this work.
Recent clients [updated December 2025]
My clients are primarily academics, though I have also done work for the European Commission, the United Nations, UNICEF, DFID (as formerly known), Education Development Trust, and senior state and government figures.
I do regular commercial work for the boutique art publishers Éditions Norma in Paris, through whom I have worked for Christie’s Paris, the Ritz Paris, Hermès, and Maison Van Cleef and Arpels, among others.
Clients in recent years include academics in the following places:
[UK]
Cambridge University
Oxford University
Durham University
King’s College London
SOAS
University of Glasgow
Birmingham University
[France]
Université Paris 1—Panthéon Sorbonne
Université de Caen
Université Jean Monnet
Université Jean Moulin
Université de Strasbourg
[Germany]
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt
Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
Universität zu Köln
Ruhr Universität Bochum
[Italy]
Pontificia Università San Tommaso d’Aquino, Rome
Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa
Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli
[Turkey]
Bilgi Üniversitesi
Sabancı Üniversitesi
[Switzerland]
Universität Bern
Zürcher Hochschule der Künste
[United States]
The Medical College of Wisconsin
Mississippi State University
University of Alabama at Birmingham
[Austria]
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften
[Japan]
Toyo University, Tokyo
And others in Brazil, Canada, China, Iran, Italy, Malaysia, Norway, the Republic of Korea, and elsewhere.
Babel editing 