Apart from several recent visits to the Guildhall Library and The National Archives (in pursuit of some records relating to naval matters) I have temporarily put aside historical research to concentrate on editorial work. I gained a place on the mentoring scheme run by the Society for Editors and Proofreaders, and the material I have been sent to work on has been challenging, to say the least; I was gratified that my mentor saw fit to congratulate me on making a decent fist of editing a lengthy and arcane text on Chinese archaeological discoveries!
I also attended the conference of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders, which proved to be useful and surprising in equal measure. I was asked to contribute a short review of the session on the current state of epublishing given by the head of Faber Digital, and this piece is due to appear in the special conference supplement that will shortly be published by SfEP. I do not consider myself a chronic technophobe, but I am suspicious of technology as so often it seems to take away as much as it gives. However, I must concede that the two Faber iPad apps that were demonstrated (the Solar System and The Wasteland) were simply stunning; so much so that at several moments during the session I did wonder if I was witnessing the redefinition of what it means to read a book.
