Honorary president: Judith Butcher Honorary vice-president: David Crystal OBE

Council 2011–12

Council members can be contacted by email. Please use the links below if you have a concern about a specific area.

Finance and administration committee

Wendy Toole

After leaving university, Wendy Toole worked in-house, first as a children's book editor and later as a general non-fiction editor. She has been a full-time freelance editor and proofreader since 2002. Her main areas of interest are art, architecture, history and English literature.

Gordon R Hooper

Working for two major retail banks, Gordon R Hooper spent 33 years in the financial services sector, in technical, management, project management and leadership roles. He served on the editorial board of one bank's staff magazine and, in 2008, retrained as a proofreader and began his freelance career. Since then he has proofread and edited a wide range of material, specialising in the non-publishing market.

Communications committee

Gillian Clarke

Beginning her publishing career in-house, Gillian Clarke has seen production methods change from hot metal type through to current processes that benefit from modern technology. She is a founder member of the Society, and was its first training co-ordinator, setting up the increasingly successful training programme. She teaches proofreading and copy-editing and is the senior author of the Publishing Training Centre's Basic Proofreading by Distance Learning.

Nancy Duin

A freelance copywriter, editor and trainer, Nancy Duin initially worked as a commissioning editor for a book publisher on a wide range of subjects, but later expanded her repertoire to structuring, writing and editing websites for television companies, businesses and government agencies and departments. She has co-created two courses: the Publishing Training Centre's 'Writing and editing for the web', which she's been teaching for more than a decade, and the SfEP's 'Introduction to web editorial skills'.

Helen Stevens

Beginning her working life in NHS administration and human resources management, in 1995 Helen Stevens trained in proofreading and began her freelance career. Since then she has proofread and edited everything from horoscope books and pub guides to academic articles and EU reports. More recently she trained in copywriting and has worked for a number of marketing, PR and web design companies.

Membership committee

Pat Baxter /

With a background in finance, administration and internal audit, mainly in the public sector, Pat Baxter became involved in proofreading and editing while working for a Scottish educational body. After gaining a degree with the Open University, she retrained in copy-editing, proofreading and teaching English for speakers of other languages (ESOL). She became freelance in 2001, specialising in academic books, student theses and local business in the areas of humanities, business studies, social subjects, accounting and finance and education.

Sarah Patey

Having started her working life as a teacher of French and German, Sarah Patey joined the SfEP to find out about proofreading. The Society trained her and equipped her to proofread – and, later, to copy-edit – language-teaching material, academic history, liturgy and schoolbooks for the overseas market. In 2007, she joined the council and has helped the Society to purchase and install its new membership database. She values the annual opportunity to meet members and associates at the SfEP conference.

Training and professional development committee

Catherine Booth

Catherine Booth began her career working on a modified-car magazine before swiftly changing direction and moving into medical editing – an arena far more suited to her qualifications. She's held in-house posts as a copy-editor at Oxford University Press and editorial manager at Remedica Medical Education and Publishing. She now has a strong freelance business as a medical editor and writer, with clients including medical communication agencies, journal publishers and pharmaceutical companies.

Gerard M F Hill

After careers as a teacher and a lorry driver, Gerard Hill trained as an indexer in 1990. Since then, he has also freelanced as proofreader, copy-editor, writer, mentor and trainer, working for trade and academic publishers, national and international bodies, universities, businesses and individuals. He lives near the Roman wall in Cumbria.

Lawrence Osborn

During his former career as an academic theologian, Lawrence Osborn was involved in some journal editing and helped to organise several national and international conferences. He became a freelance editor in 2000 and since then has diversified from academic editing into general non-fiction. He also edits – and writes – science fiction and fantasy.

Sara Peacock

A member of the SfEP since 1992, Sara Peacock has worked as an editor and project manager on academic and educational books. She became an advanced member of the Society in 2002 and obtained the LCGI in Editorial Skills in 2010. A keen musician, she often works on musicology titles in addition to those to do with many other aspects of the arts and humanities.

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