In 2000, Oxford Brookes University recruited Juliet Gardiner from Middlesex University, where she was teaching publishing, to head the academic publishing courses at the Oxford Centre for Publishing Studies. She rapidly established herself as a very effective academic leader, an inspiring teacher and an empathetic and much valued personal tutor.
Less than a year later, when Headline offered her a publishing advance that would give her the financial independence to launch herself as a full-time writer, she was deeply conflicted by the thought that she was letting down her colleagues and students.
However, despite the fact that we knew she would be greatly missed, we encouraged her to seize the opportunity to fulfil what seemed to be her manifest destiny, a decision that proved to be more than justified.
