FOUNDED IN

2007

We are Read Maxwell Communications. We are founded on the desire to connect exceptional authors, organisations and brands with their audiences.

Our Campaigns

LEADING

PR Campaigns

Our team comprises seasoned professionals with a diverse range of expertise, from publicity and marketing to literary strategy and digital outreach. We leverage our connections and insights to craft bespoke campaigns that cut through the noise and captivate audiences.

But it's not just about numbers and metrics; it's about building authentic relationships and fostering genuine engagement. We believe in the power of storytelling to spark conversations, challenge perspectives, and inspire change. That's why we approach every project with creativity, integrity, and a genuine passion for words.

Meet Our Team

Katie

Director

Claire

Director

Sam

Senior Publicist

Grace

Senior Publicist

Katie founded READ Media in 2007. Her first role in PR was the in-house publicist for How To Books. Working with primarily first-time authors writing across a variety of subject areas, she focused on building author profiles beyond the publication date of the book and providing a resource of experts for the media. She has worked on campaigns for established names in gardening, horticulture and botanic art via her long-term work with Kew Publishing, and on cookery titles such as Monica Galetti, Antonio Carluccio and Nicholas Lander. Her general campaign work has been varied, from film tie-ins such as Victoria and Abdul, to politics, finance and strong human-interest. Recently Katie managed the PR campaigns for bestsellers like The Great Post-Office Scandal by Nick Wallis for Bath Publishing, The Housemates by Teun Toebes for September Books and Playing To Lose by Ariel Anderrsson for Unbound. Since first working with The History Press in 2015, she has managed all the PR and speaking engagements for Sir Dermot Turing, sending him around the world talking about his uncle and his own books on codebreaking. In April 2023, Katie merged with Maxwell PR to set up Read Maxwell.

In addition to leading on campaigns in gardening, food and wellness, Katie works on the Oxford Literary Festival, with individual authors wanting to raise their profile and with festival sponsors establishing their brand. For the past four years, she 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 enjoys dog walks, running, reading, the theatre and is learning Italian!

katie@readmaxwell.co.uk

Claire has been working in book publicity for over 10 years, both in-house and freelance. Before that she trained as a journalist and still likes to keep a toe in the writing pool, with bylines in publications like Telegraph, ELLE and HuffPost. Claire founded Maxwell PR in 2017 and merged with Katie’s READ Media in 2023 before the subsequent rebrand to Read Maxwell Communications.

She works across fiction (literary and commercial), poetry and popular non-fiction and has managed PR campaigns for authors like Matt Haig, Bear Grylls, Lynne Tillman, Bora Chung, Sian Hughes, Daisy Lafarge, John Lister Kaye, Archbishop John Sentamu and Nancy Campbell. One of her favourite genres to work on and read is memoir—particularly stories of normal people living quietly extraordinary lives.

Claire lives in the Buckinghamshire countryside with her husband and cat and can be found (when not reading or publicising books) walking, drinking coffee and eating pastries in nice cafes, writing short stories and listening to hundreds of podcasts about all the tv shows, films and books she must consume.

claire@readmaxwell.co.uk

Sam has been running publicity campaigns across non-fiction and fiction titles for over 20 years. She has worked in-house at Penguin Books, Hodder & Stoughton, John Murray, Simon & Schuster and Constable & Robinson – where, as Publicity Director, she managed PR for the company’s diverse portfolio of imprints, genres and brands. Authors she has worked with include Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, Michael Portillo, Ines de la Fressange, William Sitwell, Dr Hannah Fry, Peter Hook, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Marin Montagut, Héloïse Brion, Axel Vervoordt, Jennifer Egan, Neil Jordan, Louise Erdrich, M.C. Beaton, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and Santa Montefiore.

At Read Maxwell Communications Sam works mainly across narrative non-fiction, travel and illustrated books – including fashion, interiors, food & drink, art, and photography. Plus, any titles that reflect her taste for the odd, the quirky and the unusual!

Beyond the world of books, you’ll find Sam outdoors trekking the Shropshire hills, or upside down in yoga pose, or making playlists (and sloe gin), or delving into Welsh literature and folk music in pursuit of finally mastering the language – a promise made to her tad-cu (her granddad).

sam@readmaxwell.co.uk

Grace has worked in publicity for fifteen years and has handled campaigns for books, foundations and NGOs.

As Head of Publicity for the versatile Quartet Books for over ten years, she worked on campaigns for over a hundred books ranging from fiction, non-fiction and children's titles, including by authors such as Brian Sewell, Alexander Newley and Sally Emerson. Her role in the company also involved cover design consultation and production and on going freelance, she has offered authors publishing consultation in addition to publicity.

Although Grace still predominantly works with books and specifically non-fiction, she has recently turned her focus to include publicity campaigns for foundations and NGOs including Bridgeman Images and Earthwatch.

When Grace is not working in publicity, she is a keen poet and a fervent believer in making poetry accessible to everyone. She lives in Hastings with her partner, two young children and Border Terrier Dodo. She loves hiking, performing poetry, sea swimming and reading books on the shingle (when she gets the chance!)

grace@readmaxwell.co.uk