Rufus Purdy - Editor
Rufus Purdy is an experienced editor and literary agent, based in Brighton. He worked at Curtis Brown from 2012 to 2018, where he combined the roles of Editor, New Writing at Curtis Brown Creative and Editor at its digital imprint Studio 28. Highlights included being the editor for espionage-fiction author Alex Gerlis, who sold more than 180,000 copies of the novels they worked on together, and working with Squeeze songwriter Chris Difford on his memoir Some Fantastic Place (Weidenfeld & Nicolson).
He established the Write Here… novel-writing school in 2018, which runs low-priced courses online and across the UK. Several students – including Paul Laird (The Birth and Impact of Britpop, Pen & Sword), Roisin Maguire (Bardo, Profile Books) and Melissa Welliver (My Love Life and the Apocalypse, Chicken House) – went on to get book deals. Many clients he’s worked with as an editor – including Natalie Lewis (Don’t Believe the Hype, Hodder), Loraine Peck (The Second Son, Text Publishing) and Adam Simcox (The Dying Squad, Gollancz) have also found publishing success.
Testimonials
- Alex Gerlis
- Loraine Peck
- Adam Simcox
WHY WE LOVE RUFUS
Rufus’ reports are clear and precise, helping you refine the craft of writing, whilst paying close attention to the market. Get the perspective of a literary agent and an editor with Rufus – his wealth of experience could be just what your manuscript needs.
WHAT RUFUS SAYS ABOUT EDITING
As one half of the Curtis Brown Creative team during the writing school’s first five years, I’ve worked with many writers – including Jane Harper, Lisa Williamson, Nicholas Searle and Caz Frear – from the ‘aspiring’ to the ‘household name’ stage, and there’s no better feeling than that of helping someone realise their dream of becoming a published author. And, as I have a foot in both the editorial and literary-agent camps, I’m uniquely placed to assist writers with getting their book into the best-possible shape and realising its commercial potential.
I consider myself a generalist when it comes to what genres I like to work in, and I love great stories of all kinds – whether they’re ultra-commercial romantic comedies and thrillers or more literary mediations on what it is to be human. Personally, I’d love to see books written in strong regional voices and I’m still hoping to, one day, find a great football novel.
As well as preparing editorial reports, I also offer line-editing, developmental-editing, copy-editing and one-to-one mentoring.
