danckwerts.co.uk

Peter Danckwerts

My name is Peter Danckwerts. I run a one-man book publishing company, Tiger of the Stripe, but I am available for freelance or part-time work. For the right job, I am also available for permanent full-time work.

I have extensive publishing experience in a wide range of roles and types of publishing, both print and electronic. However, I would be happy and willing to consider any legal and ethical employment. I have a high standard of computer literacy, good interpersonal skills, a flexible mind and an enthusiastic approach to any new challenge.

Having studied Book Publishing at Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brookes University) for three years full-time, I worked for the medical publisher Blackwell Scientific (now absorbed by Wiley) and the art publisher Phaidon. I have continued to work in publishing and related industries ever since, but I am more than willing to turn my hand to any kind of work. A few years ago I researched and wrote the history of a Yorkshire wool company and the Quaker family which founded it, Beware of the Feast: The History of Robt. Jowitt & Sons. I have worked as a copywriter and have researched, edited and annotated any number of publications. I have two novels and a book of children's stories in the pipeline.

Employment History Click entries for details

  • Tiger of the Stripe/The Word Business Ltd, 2003–Present

    Publisher. I am a sole trader with the publishing imprints Tiger of the Stripe and Tiger Xenophon. Tiger of the Stripe publishes books on a wide range of topics while Tiger Xenophon specialises in dead languages. I am responsible for every aspect of the publishing process. Most of the books are new editions of out-of-print books which I edit and annotate. I publish a few new authors. I design, typeset and produce print and ebook editions. The printed books (mostly paperback, but some hardback, some in colour) are produced print-on-demand by Lightning Source because I cannot afford warehousing. I create either fixed-layout or reflowable iBooks by exporting ePub2 or ePub3 files from InDesign and then editing them (the InDesign output always leaves something to be desired) in the Oxygen XML editor. The workflow for Kindle books is similar; I export to ePub2, edit in Oxygen and then process with Kindlegen.

  • Columns Design, 2003

    Production Manager managing a busy typesetting company and liaising with customers. The company was in the process of converting from Quark to XyEnterprise's XPP (XML Professional Publisher) to cope with growing demand for automated XML workflows from loose-leaf law publishers.

  • The Institute of Materials/Maney Publishing, 1991–2003

    Managing Editor, Books. Design, production and editorial. Liaising with authors and publishing committees in an academic/professional environment.

  • Arlington Books, 1988–1991

    Editor and Production Manager. Commissioning new books, rights management, controlling copy-editing, proofreading, all book production and design work. Arlington Books was a successful trade publisher producing books in a wide range of areas, including, health, beauty, food and fiction. The owner, Desmond Elliott, eventually closed his publishing company to concentrate on his extremely successful literary agency.

  • Athlone Press, 1988–1991

    Production and Publicity Manager. Design, production, marketing in this small academic publisher, originally an offshoot of the University of London.

  • Free Association Books, 1986–1987

    Production Manager. A tricky production role for an eccentric publishing house which specialised in books on two very different subject areas: psychoanalysis and the the social implications of science.

  • East–West Group, 1985–1986

    Group Production Manager. I handled all production for this small but very busy publisher.

  • Pitkin Pictorials, 1983–1984

    Designer. Pitkin published lavishly-illustrated colour titles, including cathedral, castle and palace guides, royal wedding souvenirs, etc.

  • Baillière Tindall/Holt-Saunders, 1981–1983

    Senior Production Controller. Production of a large list of high-quality medical and veterinary titles.

  • The National Book League (now Book Trust), 1980–1981

    Publications Officer. Compilation, design and production of the League's publications.

  • Phaidon Press, 1979

    Design Assistant. A temporary summer jobin the Design Department of this art publishing house, preparing dummies, cover roughs and display material for the Frankfurt Book Fair

  • Blackwell Scientific Publications (now absorbed by Wiley), 1977–1979

    Publications Production Assistant. Book production and design, wrote blurbs and publicity material.

  • The Farm Shop, Otford, Kent, 1973–1974

    Greengrocer’s Assistant. The owner offered to make me the manager of his other shop but I had already accepted a place at Oxford Polytechnic.

  • Lloyds Bank, 1972

    Computer Concentrator Operator & Bank Clerk. The computer element of this job was interesting, back in the days when a major branch had a single computer! The rest, however, was rather dull as I didn’t have a customer-facing role.

Higher Education

Birkbeck, University of London

Birkbeck, University of London

MA in Medieval Studies 1998–2000 – A fascinating multidisciplinary course with lecturers drawn from many departments (e.g. History, History of Art, German, French, English) and several other parts of the University (Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Study, etc.). My dissertation was on the twelfth-century Eadwine Psalter.

Open University

The Open University

BSc (Open) 1994–1996 – I took interesting courses in areas of mathematics, such as set theory and the history of mathematics. I’ll never be a brilliant mathematician but i wish i could have spared the time and money to expand my understanding further.

I later took a series of OU courses in Latin and Classical Greek.

University of Leeds

The University of Leeds

MA in Bibliography & Textual Criticism 1979–1980 – Bibliography is about the study of textual transmission and the effect that has upon the texts themselves. For instance, much of our modern understanding of Shakespeare’s writings is founded on the study of Elizabethan printing-house practice, as well as the nature of copy from which the printed works were set. Some of the most corrupt texts, such as Hamlet Q1, the ‘bad quarto’, seem to have been e set from memorial reconstructions. Other, better editions relied on prompt copies or Shakespeare’s ‘foul papers’.

My dissertation concerned the many early editions of Byron’s English Bards and Scotch Reviewers which bore misleading date and publisher information on their title pages. These are described as ‘spurious’ editions by the bibliographer of Byron, T. J. Wise, who was himself a prolific literary forger. Some of these editions were probably printed for James Cawthorne, the original publisher, who was prevented from continue publication by an injuction brought by Byron (who became embarrassed by some of the things he had said).

My Image

Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brookes University)

Diploma Course in Book Publishing 1974–1977 – A wide-ranging, practical, full-time course, covering typography, production, copy-editing, proofreading and business aspects of publishing. My dissertation was on the early days of Penguin Books.

Design

Unfortunately, most of my pre-2003 covers have been lost due to a mistake by the IT consultants at a previous employer. Here are some of the book covers I have designed:
  • AtkynsCover
    AtkynsCover
  • Bibliophobia tablet
    Bibliophobia tablet
  • CBTS tablet
    CBTS tablet
  • Goodwin2
    Goodwin2
  • Isleworth tablet
    Isleworth tablet
  • Landesmania2
    Landesmania2
  • MalcontentCoverRough small
    MalcontentCoverRough small
  • Materials4EngineeringDesktop
    Materials4EngineeringDesktop
  • MidHighGerman2
    MidHighGerman2
  • OldFrench2
    OldFrench2
  • Stoic Weal and Malcontent200
    Stoic Weal and Malcontent200
  • afghan2
    afghan2
  • anglosaxonprimer2
    anglosaxonprimer2
  • bede200
    bede200
  • caravan cooking200
    caravan cooking200
  • cultural2
    cultural2
  • cultural200
    cultural200
  • gunning200
    gunning200
  • handel coxe2
    handel coxe2
  • handel cummings2
    handel cummings2
  • handwriting200
    handwriting200
  • i love you200
    i love you200
  • kennedyuk2
    kennedyuk2
  • marie200
    marie200
  • middlehighgerman2
    middlehighgerman2
  • mischief200
    mischief200
  • philobiblon200
    philobiblon200
  • plurality of worlds200
    plurality of worlds200
  • purcell200
    purcell200
  • recipes from straw bale house
    recipes from straw bale house
  • vindication200
    vindication200

Here are some the websites I have designed:

Computing

Windows10
Ubuntu Linux

I usually work with Macs but also use Linux and Windows.

At the time of writing, I'm learning Ruby, to be followed by Ruby on Rails.

Here are some of my computer qualifications:

  • Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator, Microsoft Certified Professional – Windows 2000 Server, Microsoft Certified Professional – Windows 2000 Network Environment

  • CompTIA Linux+, A+, Network+

  • CIW v. 5 Associate

  • Apple Certified Help Desk Specialist (lapsed)

Usual experience in typesetting, imaging and other software: MacOS (up to 10.15.1), Windows (up to 10), Linux (Ubuntu, Mint, etc.), Quark XPress 8, InDesign CC (2016), Microsoft Office (Windows, Mac, Android), iWorks, Photoshop, Pixelmator, Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, FileMaker Pro, Illustrator, Acrobat Distiller, Dreamweaver, RapidWeaver, CSSEdit, SEEdit, Espresso, Fireworks, Flash, TeX, LaTeX, MySQL, PHP, PostgreSQL, various FTP programs, WordPress, etc.

  • This is the default HTML.
  • You can replace it with your own.
  • Include your own code without the HTML, Head, or Body tags.

Interests, Hobbies and Societies

Having an enquiring mind, I find most people and most things interesting. I am extremely interested in art and architecture, although I cannot claim to be an expert in either field. I am fascinated by history, but of the social/cultural kind rather than the what king fought which battle on what date type. I am equally interested in (but woefully ignorant of) science and medicine. Books, printing, typography and type design have been central to my life since I was about ten. I keep a close (but jaundiced) eye on the spheres of economics and politics and I am considering joining the Electoral Reform Society because I am so shocked at the unfairness of the present system (although any reformed system must be workable as well as fairer).

I am an enthusiastic cook and baker, making fairly authentic Indian curries and pretty good sourdough bread. I do all the cooking at home and my wife seldom complains – either I’m a reasonable cook or she is too kind to tell me that I am not.

Societies

Here are some of the societies to which I belong: