Hello.
Welcome.
Thank you for being here.
We are a communications agency founded in our work with books and the publishing industry.
We work with a real variety of clients now (including an innovative perfume brand and a conservation charity!) and we love to tell people’s stories.
Substack is a fantastic platform for conversation, culture and curiosity—so we want to get in on the action. Here you will find conversations with authors and experts about fiction writing, environmentalism, gender issues, tech, poetry, food, politics and so much more.
As well as that our team of PR and publishing industry professionals (as well as some special guests) will offer insight and advice for those inside the publishing industry, and those wanting to get a foot in the door.
First though: who are we?
I am Claire and I am Co-Director of Read Maxwell Communications (and self-appointed editor of this newsletter). I love reading and writing (and long walks on the beach…). I consume culture both high and low. Find me on the sofa watching Selling Sunset or in a high backed chair reading Proust. (Albeit more of the former than the latter). I have been working in book PR for over 10 years and my favourite thing about this job is getting to know my authors, hearing their stories and helping their books find audiences who will love them as much as I do. That’s why I wanted to set this up—to share more of the incredible people we get to work with.
My Co-Director is Katie Read who set up READ Media in 2007. We joined forces in 2023 and have just (!) rebranded to Read Maxwell Communications. In addition to leading on campaigns in gardening, food and wellness, Katie works on the Oxford Literary Festival and for the past four years has been the publicist for Fiole.co.uk, the world’s first online perfumery. Katie is also heading up the Read Maxwell Speakers Bureau. She lives in Oxfordshire with her partner and their two children and is the marathon runner of the team (not a joke). She likes to tell us all how brilliant running is while we (I) talk about how brilliant lying down is.
In January Gabrielle joined the team full time. Gabrielle is our digital marketing lead (in addition to working on publicity campaigns) being an incredibly tech and social media savvy member of Gen-Z.
Grace Pilkington is a poet from Hastings and a fantastic publicist with years of experience working on high profile campaigns, and Sam Evans is our hill-walking, cat-loving, masterful publicist who manages outstanding campaigns for our clients (have a meeting with anyone in publishing and they’ll say ‘oh yes, I know Sam’).
That’s who we are, and we hope you’ll join us here.
Let me leave you with some recommendations to whet your appetite for more cultural goodness:
The Body in the Library by Graham Caveney. Out this week and one of the best memoirs I’ve read. David Nicholls said: ‘Graham’s writing is always thoughtful and witty, erudite and hugely entertaining. I so enjoyed this touching and insightful book.’
Mr Bates vs The Post Office (ITV), and Nick Wallis’ The Great Post Office Scandal — consume a combination of the book and the TV show and feel your blood boil. Hearings are going on this week with ex-Post Office CEO Paula Vennells.
Challengers - tennis, a genuinely interestingly drawn love triangle and lots of techno music.
The new Helen Garner editions from Weidenfeld & Nicholson — I read This House of Grief recently and was just in awe of her style. It is one of the most compulsively readable, thrilling true crime books I’ve come across.
