'The Essex Book Festival has done a huge amount for literature' - Poet Laureate Andrew Motion

'Proves that Essex is a really happening place' - George Monbiot

'One of the most imaginative book festivals' - The Bookseller

The Essex Book Festival: 'one of the ten best things to do in March 2007' Good Housekeeping

* Co-ordinated for six years the biggest reading and writing festival in the Eastern Region with over sixty events across Essex, working with a wide range of authors from Germaine Greer, Joanne Harris and Irvine Welsh to Joanna Trollope, Billy Bragg and Tony Parsons.

* As Literature Manager for Essex County Council worked extensively with national literature and arts organisations, pubishers, funders and local government including writers' days with The Literary Consultancy

* Chair of National Association for Literature Development 2003 - 2006

* Current projects include the first Basildon Children's Book Festival with Jacqueline Wilson, Michael Rosen, Francesca Simon, Anne Fine. Jeremy Strong, G.P.Taylor and others (March 2008) - the Eastern region's biggest-ever children's book festival - Off the Shelf, Adopt a Scientist and Adopt an Author, working with the Arts Council's Creative Partnerships.

The Eastern region's biggest-ever children's book festival