About

After a degree in English and Theatre Studies from the University of Leeds, Katie moved to London to study for a diploma in Theatre Directing. Her first theatre company, Hands On Theatre won Time Out Critics Choice for its first production and Katie was offered a bursary at the National Theatre Studio. Here she continued to develop her skills and went on to assist directors like Sir Trevor Nunn, Harold Pinter and Terry Johnson on productions in the West End whilst also putting on her own productions and teaching at Drama Schools.

In 2007, she changed direction and drew on her love of books and English to start a career in PR. She was offered the freelance position of Book Publicist to How To Books and grew what is now READ Media around her client base.

Katie has worked on books across all subject matters from the film tie in for Victoria & Abdul by Shrabani Basu to cookery books by Monica Galetti and Antonio Carluccio.

Claire is a book publicist and journalist and has ample experience in book PR, most recently as in-house Publicity Manager at Canongate Books. As a freelancer she has worked with Hodder & Stoughton, Indigo Press, Elliot & Thompson, Headline, Quarto, Usborne, and many others. She has planned and implemented a range campaigns across multiple genres – for high profile celebrity authors, debut novelists, popular non-fiction, specialist and academic titles, company profiles, and national charity projects. She has excellent contacts in the industry and media. Claire was shortlisted for the PPC Annual Awards ‘Waterstones Hardback Fiction Award’ for 2018.

Sam Evans is an award-winning publicist with over 20 years’ experience working with non-fiction and fiction authors across a wide variety of titles. She has worked for Penguin UK, Hodder & Stoughton, Simon & Schuster UK and John Murray; she was Publicity Director at independent publisher Constable & Robinson for over seven years. Authors she has represented include Richard & Judy, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Steven Pinker, Eric Hobsbawn, Michael Portillo, Max Mosley, Jennifer Egan, Anthony Sampson, William Sitwell, Peter Hook, Santa Montefiore, Donald McRae, Matthew Johnstone, Jonathan Fenby, Michael Jacobs, Neil Jordan, Gerard Russell, Ferdinand Mount, Hunter Davies, Nigel Williams, M.C. Beaton, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Neel Mukherjee, Rachel Hore, Ines de la Fressange, Pierre Hermé, Pierre et Gilles and Marin Montagut.

Grace Pilkington is a book publicist who has worked in the publishing industry for over fifteen years.  She has led a huge range of publicity campaigns for memoirs, biographies, fiction titles, children’s books and art publications.  As Head of Publicity at Quartet Books for ten years, Grace managed publicity campaigns for over a hundred books, including six books by Brian Sewell, titles by Sally Emerson and Alexander Newley’s memoir.  She has also worked on campaigns with publishing companies including Trolley Books, Pushkin Press and Harper Collins. As a freelancer Grace has branched out from solely focusing on book publicity and has handled campaigns for charities and photo agencies.

Sophie has a passion for storytelling which led her to study English Literature and Performing Arts in the first half of her career. Sophie was trained at Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in Musical Theatre. After graduation, Sophie joined a Cooperative Acting Agency called Alpha Actors, where she worked as an agent and actor. Sophie then went on to teach performing arts to children and young adults and built her own small coaching business. Sophie is now delighted to be exploring her love for literature again on a new journey with READ Media where she can delve into her passion for non-fiction, writing and design.

“I have always loved books; whether reading or writing, the world that can be created on the page has always fascinated me.”