Paul Murphy

Paul Murphy – Editor

Experienced non-fiction editor available for editorial consultation

Overview

I am an experienced non-fiction editor, having worked in the publishing industry for more than seventeen years. Most recently I was an Editorial Director at Weidenfeld & Nicolson, part of the Orion Publishing Group, where I published a number of Sunday Times bestsellers (Blue by John Sutherland; Brave New World by Guillem Balagué) and prize-winners (the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing; the Telegraph Sports Book of the Year), across a wide range of non-fiction categories. My main areas of interest include: popular science and psychology; current affairs; economics; politics; popular culture; nature writing; sport; and memoir.

I am now available for editorial consultation and freelance projects, including: project editing, structural editing, line-editing, copy-editing, proofreading and manuscript assessment. I pride myself on working with authors to ensure their books are the best they can be, offering a supportive but critical approach to the editing process. Clients I have worked with include: Orion Publishing Group; Little, Brown Book Group; Ebury Publishing; Headline Publishing Group; and Curtis Brown Creative.
Services
Non-Fiction
Biographies & Memoirs Humanities & Social Sciences Math & Science Nature Sports & Outdoors Travel
Languages
English (UK)

Work experience

Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Sep, 2010 — May, 2019 (over 8 years)

Portfolio

Kill 'Em and Leave

James McBride

'A formidable free-style book that isn't straight biography but a mix of history, street-level investigative reporting, hagiography, Deep South sociology, music criticism, memoir and some fiery preaching' Rolling Stone magazineA Guardian best music book of 201... read more
Connectography

Parag Khanna

Which lines on the map matter most?It's time to reimagine how life is organized on Earth. In Connectography, Parag Khanna guides us through the emerging global network civilization in which mega-cities compete over connectivity and borders are increasingly irr... read more
Impossible Owls

Brian Phillips

'Hilarious, nimble and thoroughly illuminating' Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground RailwayFrom its opening journey into remote Alaska for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska, a quest that culminates on the frozen sea between the United States a... read more
Inverting the Pyramid

Jonathan Wilson

'One of the most revelatory sports books of the year' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY'Masterful ... it could be the best thing to have happened to English football in years' TIME OUT'Gloriously readable, eccentric and informative' METROIn INVERTING THE PYRAMID, Jonathan Wi... read more
'An evocatively thoughtful wider history of the race, the war and the peace' GUARDIAN'Occasionally funny and regularly poignant, brilliantly focused in its research . . . His drive, wit and curiosity inform Zone Rouge . . . gently profound and genuinely moving... read more
Hit Factories

Karl Whitney

After discovering a derelict record plant on the edge of a northern English city, and hearing that it was once visited by David Bowie, Karl Whitney embarks upon a journey to explore the industrial cities of British pop music.Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, L... read more
Political Risk

Condoleezza Rice

Political risk - the probability that a political action could significantly affect an organisation - is changing fast, and it's more widespread than ever before.In the past, the chief concern used to be whether a foreign dictator would nationalise the country... read more
'The future hasn't happened yet. The idea that our civilisation is doomed is not established fact. It is a story we tell ourselves.'In the 1980s, we gave up on the future. When we look ahead now, we imagine economic collapse, environmental disaster and the zom... read more
Scale

Geoffrey West

Geoffrey West's research centres on a quest to find unifying principles and patterns connecting everything, from cells and ecosystems to cities, social networks and businesses.Why do organisms and ecosystems scale with size in a remarkably universal and system... read more
Long Shot

Azad Cudi

In September 2014, Azad Cudi became one of seventeen snipers deployed when ISIS, trying to shatter the Kurds in a decisive battle, besieged the northern city of Kobani. In LONG SHOT, he tells the inside story of how a group of activists and idealists withstood... read more
We like to believe that we exist as independent selves at the centre of a subjective universe; that we are discrete individuals acting autonomously in the world with an unchanging inner self that persists throughout our lifetime. This is an illusion. On a phys... read more
Five billion people, two-thirds of the world's mega-cities, one-third of the global economy, two-thirds of global economic growth, thirty of the Fortune 100, six of the ten largest banks, eight of the ten largest armies, five nuclear powers, massive technologi... read more
The Sunday Times Science Book of the Year 2017'Does Einstein proud . . . Eminently readable' Guardian'No one has covered the topic with such a light touch and joie de vivre . . . a delight' Brian CleggGravity was the first force to be recognised and described ... read more
Watling Street

John Higgs

A journey along one of Britain's oldest roads, from Dover to Anglesey, in search of the hidden history that makes us who we are today.'A bravura piece of writing - Bill Bryson on acid' Tom HollandWinding its way from the White Cliffs of Dover to the Druid grov... read more
How much do we really know about the place we call 'home'? In this sweeping, timely book, Nicholas Crane tells the story of Britain.*****Over the course of 12,000 years of continuous human occupation, the British landscape has been transformed form a European ... read more
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018The uplifting, feel-good autobiography of Ben Ryan, the coach of the Olympic gold-medal winning Fijian rugby team It is late summer 2013. Ben Ryan, a red-haired, 40-something, spectacle-wearing Engli... read more
'A fascinating and delightfully written book about some very smart people who may not, or may, be about to transform humanity forever' JON RONSONThis is a book about AI and AI risk. But it's also more importantly about a community of people who are trying to t... read more
Brave New World

Guillem Balague

The Sunday Times BestsellerThe exclusive behind-the-scenes story of the Mauricio Pochettino revolution at Spurs, told in his own wordsSince joining the club in 2014, Mauricio Pochettino has transformed Tottenham from underachievers into genuine title contender... read more
Where Poppies Blow

John Lewis-Stempel

Winner of the 2017 Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize for nature writingThe natural history of the Western Front during the First World War'If it weren't for the birds, what a hell it would be.'During the Great War, soldiers lived inside the ground, closer to n... read more
Blue

John Sutherland

A Sunday Times top-five bestseller'This is a remarkable book . . . profound and deeply moving . . . It has as much to tell us about mental illness as it does about policing' Alastair StewartJohn Sutherland joined the Met in 1992, having dreamed of being a poli... read more

Paul has 1 review

Professionalism

Quality

Value

Responsiveness

ian M.

ian M.

Dec, 2022

I hired Paul based on his experience in my genre (self help), for a developmental edit on my first book. Paul provided both an extremely insightful overall assessment of my manuscript plus an exceptionally detailed para by para edit, with many extremely helpful comments that have really simplified the task of writing that second draft. Paul bookended our collaboration with Zoom calls where he a...
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