My proofreading career began at school when the teacher in charge of the school magazine handed me a copy of Hart’s Rules for Compositors and Readers and told me to get on with it! In those days, it was a matter of reading galley proofs; now I am equally at home with paper, Word documents, pdfs or webpages.

I hold a Diploma (with Distinction) from the College of Media and Publishing in Editing and Proofreading and have completed the Publishing Training Centre’s Essential Proofreading course (with Merit). I am an Intermediate Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading.

In addition to business publications, I am at home in specific academic fields, especially:

  • Politics and government
  • History and archaeology
  • Classical languages and literature
  • Philosophy, psychology and psychotherapy.

Examples include:

  • Copy-editing a major analysis of healthcare regulatory policy for a public body
  • Proofreading and copy-editing sensitive and confidential court reports for an independent multidisciplinary child and family assessment service
  • Proofreading the annual reports of a leading UK construction company
  • Proofreading tender documents for businesses bidding for major contracts
  • Proofreading doctoral theses in the field of psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
  • ‘I highly recommend David for his meticulous, professional proofreading services. David proofread my dissertation for my MSc at the University of Oxford. He was incredibly diligent and thorough with my essay to ensure its integrity. He also gave me confidence in my work and I cannot thank him enough for his truly excellent work.’

    Louise Jennings
    Early Years Standards Lead, London Borough of Barnet
  • “David Fanthorpe proofread my 60,000-word doctoral thesis with forensic thoroughness. It was a horrible job: since I had been unable to access the citation programme, the references had all been done by hand, often badly, and David was assiduous (and kind) in his efforts to get me sorted out.  It is something of a niche subject (psychoanalytic psychotherapy), but the professional language did not impede David’s ability to pick up errors.  I would recommend him highly.”

    Jan McGregor Hepburn
    Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist
  • “David Fanthorpe has written a number of articles, op-eds and other professional documents for me. I am always impressed by the quality of his work, the speed with which he turns writing projects around and his ability to perfectly understand the brief I give him. I would certainly recommend David’s writing services to anyone in the public affairs and communications industry.”

    Alexandra Bigland
    Deputy Managing Director, APCO UK
  • “David is an excellent, trusted pair of eyes for your documents who spots everything and gives you extra confidence that your work will be right, with no annoying errors or typos.  I cannot recommend David highly enough, his service is a must for any important document that needs to impress.”

    Andrew Geldard
    Head of Communications, Willmott Dixon Ltd
  • “David edits all of our highly complex and voluminous pieces of work – clinical reports, court reports, academic work and lectures.  He is an excellent editor who approaches his work with thoughtfulness and exceptional thoroughness. We are always confident that our mistakes and omissions in the text will be attended to and corrected. His comments are always greatly appreciated. His work is without exception delivered on time, even when he is under great time pressure. We would not be able to deliver our work without David.”

    Dr Tanya Nesic
    Director, Inspiring Childhood