Deborah Taylor, The Blue Pencil, is a freelance copy editor and proofreader based in Newbury, Berkshire. A member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading, she specialises in working with indie authors and small publishers across crime, memoir, and romance genres.

With a background rooted in the print industry, Deborah brings warmth, expertise, and a genuine love of language to everything she does. She supports self-publishing authors, combining meticulous attention to detail with a warm, encouraging approach—because great editing should feel like a collaboration.

MY MEOW PUBLISHING is an Independent Publisher of Fine Artists’ high-quality illustrated and sewn Casebound Gift Books for everyone from five to eighty-five. Our first release is The Kitten Who Lost His Meow – a playful fable illustrated by Oxfordshire artist Patricia Broughton and written with Oxford musician, Francis Rockliff. The original drawings and story celebrate family, friendship and cats with landscapes inspired by the Cotswolds and Oxfordshire. The book is dedicated to the Samaritans for the emotional support it gives to many and the Blue Cross for its animal welfare work. The book can be obtained from the Broad Canvas Art & Craft Shop in Broad Street, Oxford and the Madhatter Bookstore in High Street, Burford. The book is also available online from our website.

‘I can see your book has been made with great love and care and the book’s website has a lovely touch of humour and is fun! I know wit x cat content, in general, is popular and charming and can convert to books nicely.’

Laura Higginson – Publishing Director Ebury Penguin / Gift Books for all occasions including Charlie Mackesy’s The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (10M Copies) and the Horse and Johanna Basford’s The Secret Garden (Adult Colouring Book x 20M Copies).

WarmPorch Publishing is a very small, independent, labour of love.

In one form or another, I have been involved in publishing for almost twenty-five years, from setting up an independent music magazine (Sandman Magazine) in Sheffield to my current work at Oxford University Press.

WarmPorch was initially created to publish some extracts from my grandmother’s journals, The Search for Freeland Gardens [2009]. This small book (also now our first ebook) covered the arrival of my family, 50 years previously, to open a nursery garden in a small West Oxfordshire village.

In recent years I have been working with the sculptor Steve Hurst, using his diaries and sketchbooks to tell the story of the young artist. In 2022, Drawn From Life: The Ruskin Diaries 1949-53, was the first full length WarmPorch book and this year we published the follow-up, Bluff Road: The Malaya Diaries 1953-1955, covering Steve’s experiences as a national serviceman during the Malayan Emergency.

Looking further ahead, my grandmother wrote her journals between 1931 and 1974, and they track the author’s life from a shy teenager about to embark on her nursing training during the early years of the Depression, to the older, hardy, market gardener contemplating retirement. Ideally I’d like to publish three volumes of these journals. The entire text has been transcribed (about 1.3 million words); the next task is to edit them down.

Watch this space.

Three friends. Three countries. Three very different literary journeys that all began with a shared love of music in Oxford.

Born in Colombia and adopted by Britain through love, language and music, I discovered my writing voice in English at the turn of the millennium. Before becoming a novelist I spent many years as a classical and tango singer, performer and teacher and I met Renata Lanzoni and Anila Syed through my vocal harmony projects, Singing for the Terrified and Songthreads.

When live meetings became impossible after COVID, Songthreads gave way to Wordthreads to channel our love of music into the love of words.

My own work explores the meeting point between science, spirituality and human relationships. I will be signing the third edition of The Secret Life of a God, the opening novel in The Physics of Passion trilogy, together with Wordthreads anthologies Pigeon Tales, and The Rogue Potato and The Pinging Cat.

Joining me is Italian author Renata Lanzoni, whose novel Shattered Moon draws on real-life experience to tell a gripping story of abuse, resilience and survival on a tropical island. She is also the author of the travel guides Oxford in One Afternoon and The Light-Packer’s Guide: Globetrotting on Bare Essentials.

From Pakistan, Anila Syed brings a distinctive voice that moves effortlessly between literary fiction and children’s books. Her genre-defying collection Prompted showcases her imaginative storytelling, alongside a growing body of work for younger readers.

Roxy Eloise always dreamed of becoming an author, but writing a full book felt impossible, until a birthday gift, You Are a Badass, gave her the confidence to try. At twenty-eight, she finished her first manuscript and secured a traditional publishing deal through PitMad.

Her debut, The Guidal: Discovering Puracordis, is a dystopian romantasy set in a near-future UK where time determines worth. It follows a sixteen-year-old girl raised in a strict institute, grappling with oppression, mystery, and a secret that threatens everything. Inspired by a dream, the series blends rebellion, identity, and forbidden magic.

Originally a trilogy, The Guidal series has expanded to four books, concluding in 2026. Roxy writes for readers who love flawed yet determined heroines, dystopian lies, and worlds where humanity is deliberately disconnected from its true power.

Chris Andrews Publications has produced guide books, coffee tables and souvenir books in Oxford for over 40 years. The company also publishes calendars, cards, posters and fridge magnets. All are photographed, designed and produced by ourselves. We also publish books and cards in the Cotswolds, Chilterns, Channel islands and Belfast.