Rebecca Swift obituary
The pioneering founder of a literary consultancy dedicated to helping aspiring writers
Rebecca Swift, who has died aged 53 of cancer, believed that anyone who writes and wishes to be edited and advised constructively and professionally should be given that opportunity. To this end, in 1996 she founded The Literary Consultancy (TLC) with Hannah Griffiths. It was the first of its kind – a manuscript assessment agency offering detailed editorial feedback to anyone writing in English anywhere in the world. Set up in Becky’s north London flat on a capital sum of £600, TLC never borrowed another penny.
From 1989 to 1995, Becky had been a junior editor at Virago Press. At that time, the “slush pile” – that mountain of unsolicited manuscripts – was one of the first casualties of the editorial department: publishers no longer had the resources to read unsolicited manuscripts, which were returned to the writer with a standard note.
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