Keith Mansfield - Editor
London, United Kingdom
Nonfiction publisher with 25 years’ experience, specializing in science; author of 3 science fiction novels and many TV entertainment shows.
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Overview
Publisher, Development Editor & Ghost Writer. I've over 25 years' industry experience at the likes of Oxford University Press and Pearson/Addison-Wesley, as well as contributing significantly to setting up the Quercus nonfiction publishing program. I've also written three novels for Quercus and been awarded two international writing fellowships.
I love helping authors achieve their goals and have their voice come through in a book. The author/editor relationship is very important to me and over my career I've been privileged to work with some of the world's greatest minds. On receiving his advances, Nobel Laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar wrote to me, "The book is beautiful beyond compare and with a friendship gained besides". Contemporary thinker (and with our book together, now a New York Times bestselling author) Nick Bostrom has described me as "a hero of publishing".
Please get in touch if you've an interesting concept and want me to help with the book proposal, or work with you on an early draft, or polish the completed manuscript. I enjoy working in very many subject areas, but if you have a book about space/cosmology or the future of humanity, I'll be delighted.
Languages
English (UK)
English (US)
Non-Fiction
Children's Books (Non-Fiction)
Computers & Internet
Earth & Space & Environmental Sciences
Entertainment
Mathematics & Statistics
Philosophy
Physics & Chemistry
Politics & Current Affairs
Technology
Fiction
Science Fiction
Work experience
Author & freelance publishing consultant
Self-employed
January, 2016
–
Present
(almost 3 years)
Writing fiction and nonfiction books, scripting television shows and providing freelance publishing services.
Senior Publisher
Oxford University Press
June, 2009
–
December, 2015
(over 6 years)
Book publisher responsible for many science subjects, including mathematics, statistics, computer science, astronomy, existential risk, and history and philosophy of science.
Author and freelance publisher
Self-employed
October, 2004
–
April, 2009
(over 4 years)
Authored three science fiction novels for Quercus books, scripted several primetime TV shows, worked as book publisher for the British Film Institute and helped build up the Quercus nonfiction list of books in several areas but with a focus on popular science.
Senior Acquisitions Editor
Addison-Wesley/Pearson Education
June, 1997
–
September, 2004
(over 7 years)
Publisher for computer science, specializing in higher education textbooks. Created a brand new programme in computer games programming and commissioned Pearson Education's very first online training materials.
Deputy Head of Development
Oxford University Press
January, 1996
–
May, 1997
(over 1 year)
Overseeing a team of ten development editors taking on science and medical books.
Development Editor
Oxford University Press
January, 1992
–
December, 1995
(almost 4 years)
Developed more than 150 projects (trade and academic) from contract through to publication.
Assistant Editor
Pergamon Press
September, 1989
–
January, 1992
(over 2 years)
Editor of numerous scientific encyclopedias across a range of scientific and medical subjects.
Portfolio (19 selected works)
Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies
Nick Bostrom
The human brain has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities that our species owes its dominant position. Other animals have stronger muscles or sharper claws, but we have cleverer brains. If machine brains one day come to surpass human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become very powerful. As the fate... read more
Robots may one day rule the world, but what is a robot-ruled Earth like?Many think the first truly smart robots will be brain emulations or "ems." Scan a human brain, then run a model with the same connections on a fast computer, and you have a robot brain, but recognizably human.Train an em to do some job and copy it a million times: an army of workers is at your disposal. When they can be ma... read more
50 Physics Ideas You Really Need To Know (50 ideas)
Joanne Baker
As well as outlining and explaining such historic breakthroughs in human understanding of the physical world as Kepler’s law of planetary motion and Newton’s law of gravitation, Joanne Baker unravels the sometimes baffling complexities of modern scientific theory from Planck’s law to Pauli’s exclusion principle and from Schrondinger’s cat to string theory. The essays are accompanied by a ran... read more
In a series of 50 accessible and lucidly written essays, Ben Dupre introduces and explains the problems of knowledge, consciousness, identity, ethics, beliefs, justice, language, meaning and aesthetics that have engaged the attention of thinkers from the era of the ancient Greeks to the present day.
50 Mathematical Ideas You Really Need to Know
Tony Crilly
In this book, Professor Tony Crilly explains in 50 clear and concise essays the mathematical concepts - ancient and modern, theoretical and practical, everyday and esoteric - that allow us to understand and shape the world around us.
One of the most revealing snapshots of British cinema-going ever produced, The Ultimate Film is the definitive list of the all-time top 100 films based on UK cinema admissions. From the 1930s to the present, the chart shows the diverse tastes that come together to make up Britain's choice of film favourites. Is Harry Potter more popular than The Lord of the Rings? How does Bond compare with Br... read more
Cosmos
Giles Sparrow
The universe stretches at least 130 billion trillion kilometers in every direction around us. The magnificent vault of stars is gloriously on display in this deluxe, slip-cased edition--a perfect gift for star-lovers of all ages. Cosmos makes sense of this dizzying celestial panorama by exploring it one step at a time and by illustrating the planets, moons, stars, nebulae, white dwarfs, black ... read more
Deep Space by Stuart Clark (2007) Hardcover
Stuart Clark
From the Publisher What are time and space? When and how did the universe begin - and how will it end? Why has such a rich variety of celestial objects come into being? And was life an inevitable development in the cosmos? The answers to our most profound questions lie in the depths of space. To look here is, in effect, to look back in time, because we see the light emitted long ago from dista... read more
50 Visions of Mathematics
Sam Parc, Dara O Briain
Relax: no one understands technical mathematics without lengthy training but we all have an intuitive grasp of the ideas behind the symbols. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), this book is designed to showcase the beauty of mathematics - including images inspired by mathematical problems - together with its unreasonable... read more
How to Study as a Mathematics Major
Lara Alcock
Every year, thousands of students declare mathematics as their major. Many are extremely intelligent and hardworking. However, even the best will encounter challenges, because upper-level mathematics involves not only independent study and learning from lectures, but also a fundamental shift from calculation to proof. This shift is demanding but it need not be mysterious -- research has reveal... read more
How to Think About Analysis
Lara Alcock
Analysis (sometimes called Real Analysis or Advanced Calculus) is a core subject in most undergraduate mathematics degrees. It is elegant, clever and rewarding to learn, but it is hard. Even the best students find it challenging, and those who are unprepared often find it incomprehensible at first. This book aims to ensure that no student need be unprepared. It is not like other Analysis books... read more
There is a widely held conception that progress in science and technology is our salvation, and the more of it, the better. This, however, is an oversimplified and even dangerous attitude. While the future will certainly offer huge changes due to such progress, it is far from certain that all of these changes will be for the better. The unprecedented rate of technological development that the ... read more
Gameplay and design
Kevin Oxland
What exactly is the elusive ingredient that makes a game worth playing? To create a great game you need passion, imagination, talent, a good understanding of game-play and design, experience, a dedicated team, good project management and lots of hard work. Every game developed is individual, but there are certain techniques and fundamentals that can be learnt to understand the creative process... read more
Software Engineering and Computer Games
Rudy Rucker
"This book should be a requirement of anyone that wants to write games ¿ period"André Lamothe, author and CEO of Xtreme Games There are many books on the art of games programming but now acclaimed author Rudy Rucker has gone a step beyond and transformed it into a science. Software Engineering and Computer Games uses an object-oriented (OO) approach throughout, incorporating UML for OO analysi... read more
Global Catastrophic Risks
Nick Bostrom, Milan M. Cirkovic
A global catastrophic risk is one with the potential to wreak death and destruction on a global scale. In human history, wars and plagues have done so on more than one occasion, and misguided ideologies and totalitarian regimes have darkened an entire era or a region. Advances in technology are adding dangers of a new kind. It could happen again.In Global Catastrophic Risks 25 leading experts ... read more
The currents of History run deep and often unseen beneath the everyday ripple of events. But now and again the current rises to the surface, and the events of a single day shed an exceptional light on the meaning of the past. Such events are the subject of Days that Changed the World. Some of the 50 days described here mark the end of an era; others the start of something new. Many are the dat... read more
When thirteen-year-old Johnny's talking computer Kovac detects an extraterrestrial signal, his life is set to change for ever. Until then, stuck in his children's home in Castle Dudbury New Town, with the nasty cook Mr Wilkins watching his every move, football had been his only escape. But soon things start happening around him that Johnny doesn't understand: why is his mother, who is on life ... read more
Invaders have exploded the sun's nearest star. Will the death of Earth's sun be next? While trying to keep up with his school studies and ensuring his football team stays top of the league, it's Johnny's job to safeguard planet Earth. When invaders turn a nearby star into a supernova, Johnny must act to protect the sun. Johnny and his sister Clara prepare to travel in their space ship to the g... read more
Johnny Mackintosh: Battle for Earth
Keith Mansfield
People in London are being taken away in unmarked police vans, never to be seen again... While trying to keep up with his school studies and ensuring his football team stays top of the league, it's Johnny's job to safeguard planet Earth. Suspicious of the strange occurrences, Johnny investigates to find that alien enemies are feeding humans to their Queen on a nearby planet. He then discovers ... read more
Keith has 2 reviews
Professionalism
Quality
Value
Communication
The time and effort that Keith has put into his work has been second to none. He really went above and beyond. He checked and double checked several aspects of my manuscript and looked at all areas objectively. Extremely thorough and exceptionally professional. I would highly recommend Keith to others and look forward to working with him again in the future. If you're looking for the righ...
Read moreGavin Stone, June 2018
Keith was exceptional. He gave me an idea of what his work would look like prior to the collaboration. His editing was thoughtful, comprehensive, and forthright. It gave me the chance to look seriously at the product with fresh eyes and approach the material as readers would. I would recommend him very, very highly.
Read moreDavid Johnson, December 2017
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