All about Claire

Claire began her publishing career in 2008 after graduating from the University of Kent with a degree in English literature. She started at children’s book publisher Miles Kelly as editorial assistant and was soon managing her own projects – one of the first was an extremely long poetry collection. Claire still vividly remembers commissioning hundreds of illustrations for that project! 

Over eight years at MKP, Claire worked on picture books, children’s fiction anthologies and non-fiction titles for children aged 0–12 years. She gained extensive experience as a book editor managing all kinds of topics across multiple formats. Some of her favourite titles from this time include a book on giant structures around the world in collaboration with the Discovery Channel, a wildflower detective handbook and a book that converted into a fire station (she got to look around a fire engine as part of her research!).

In 2016, Claire moved to London to work for Weldon Owen, which was part of the Bonnier group. She started as a book editor for their Bear Grylls list then moved over to illustrated non-fiction. Here she gained more experience writing children’s books as well as editing and project managing.

A few years later, Claire began working as a freelance book editor and writer. Since then, she has written around thirty books for children’s publishers on topics such as dinosaurs, gardening, recycling, women in science, wellbeing and magic, as well as picture books and even a chapter book. Over the past few years Claire has completed a number of courses on inclusivity and neurodiversity to help encourage a culture of belonging in children’s books. She has carried out multiple sensitivity reads for publishers who are committed to creating diverse books.

Alongside her editorial and writing work, Claire runs an editorial training and mentorship programme called Get into Children’s Publishing. Participants have gone on to work for publishers including Pearson, Hachette and Penguin.