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Honorary Life Member Biographies

Beatrice DAVIS (1909-1992)

Beatrice Deloitte Davis was born on 28 January 1909 in Bendigo, Victoria. Beatrice was still studying the piano at the Conservatorium of Music in Sydney when she began her university studies at Sydney University. She graduated with a BA in 1929 and began her working life as a stenographer at the French Trade Commission and then she worked for the Medical Journal for seven years, as a stenographer at first and then as editorial assistant. Beatrice freelanced for Angus & Robertson for a few years, and then A&R employed Beatrice in-house in Sydney in 1937. When Beatrice Davis finally left A&R in 1973, she had been working for the firm as an editor for 36 years and was A&R's first, full-time general editor. She created the editorial department and had chosen and trained a succession of fine editors, among them, Nan McDonald and Rosemary Dobson and Alec Bolton. She had dealt with many published writers, either as their editor or as head of the editorial department, including Thea Astley, Marjorie Barnard, Manning Clark, Alexandra Hasluck, Ruth Park, Hal Porter, Kylie Tennant, Judah Waten and Judith Wright.

Beatrice then worked for Thomas Nelson (Australia) Ltd as their editor in New South Wales from 1974 and a few of her A&R authors followed her to Nelson's. In 1981 Beatrice was made a Member of the Order of Australia for her service to literature. In 1986 at the age of 77, Beatrice continued to freelance, mostly for Mead & Beckett.

Chosen by Miles Franklin as one of the judges of the Miles Franklin Award from its inception in 1957, she nurtured, developed and promoted Australian literature, and has been awarded the MBE and AM for her contribution to Australian publishing.

Beatrice died in 1992, aged 83 years, and the Beatrice Davis Editorial Fellowship was established. Beatrice Davis was nominated for honorary life membership of the Society of Editors in 1987.

Ruth DIXON

Ruth Dixon was born into a family of bookworms. On leaving school, she worked in the MUP bookshop, then as assistant to the printing manager at Ruskin Press, secretary to the publishing manager, and was finally promoted to editorial duties, while studying for a BA degree at Melbourne University (1958-61). She travelled by ship to London and worked in the production departments at Longmans Green (1962-64) and Fabers (1964), completing the one-year Publishers Association Book Production course. Her unforgettable journey home was overland, by bus.

Back in Melbourne, Frank Eyre offered her a position as editor at Oxford University Press (1965-68) alongside Wendy Sutherland. In 1969 came experience in paperback publishing with Brian Stonier and Lee White at Sun Books. For the next four years Ruth worked at Cheshire with Trevor Barr, John Curtain and Barney Rivers, and became the senior editor, responsible for editorial standards, training and workflow. During this period, the fledgling Society of Editors came into being, due to an opportune encounter between Ruth and Janet Mackenzie. Ruth's chosen role was training officer, providing opportunities for improving standards. Her final editorial positions (1973-74) were at ASEP, the national science project, and ACER, before wanderlust became too strong.

After travelling to North and South America and the UK, Ruth found employment as acquisitions librarian at Hawthorn State College, while studying part time (Grad Dip Lib., RMIT, 1976-77). After another interlude in Germany, Ruth became acquisitions librarian at Chisholm Institute, was seconded to the new Western Institute (1987-88) as its first technical services librarian, and in 1990, was appointed Systems Support Librarian at Monash University, Caulfield. Her lifelong interest in training people with complicated and skilled tasks was given plenty of scope. In 1992 Ruth completed a Graduate Diploma in Applied Science at Deakin University. She retired in 1996 to pursue her interests in editing video and many other computer-assisted tasks.

Beryl HILL (1937- )

Beryl Hill was born in Melbourne, Victoria. She began her formal editorial career at Melbourne University Press as a trainee editor under the watchful eye of that doyenne of editors, Barbara Ramsden. Over the following forty years Beryl has been a freelance editor/consultant, as well as an in-house editor, often both simultaneously!

She has held senior editorial and project management positions with publishers and academic institutions such as Oxford University Press, Penguin Books, Victoria College, Computer Documentation, Lothian Books and Deakin University, returning to Melbourne University Press in 2002. Her freelance and in-house projects were always varied - from prestigious art history publications and exhibition catalogues for the National Gallery of Victoria, to books about mud bricks, desert travel, craft and self-help books, Australian history, gardening, botany, cookery, humour, health issues and natural therapies, medicine, sport, politics, dictionaries, educational textbooks and ancillary materials, to academic studies in such areas as education, environmental and world issues, history and biography, to projects for government departments, technical manuals for business organisations, to TV scripts, even magazines on rock-climbing and bushwalking.

She has been a guest lecturer at RMIT and Monash universities, and for several years was a training officer with the Society of Editors (Victoria) running a series of editing workshops. These eventually led to the publication, with her co-trainer/author Elizabeth Flann, of The Australian Editing Handbook in 1994; it received an award for excellence in educational publishing and became a recommended textbook for all graduate diplomas, TAFE and other courses in publishing and editing. In 2004 they updated and expanded the book to a second edition to reflect the changes and challenges facing editors today.

Beryl has been an Honorary Life Member of the Society since 1989, and is currently one of the accreditation assessors for the Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd).

Nick HUDSON (1933- )

Nick Hudson arrived in Australia from the UK in 1958, with the brief to set up an Australian arm of Heinemann Educational Books.

The 1960s were dominated by science books - early successes including A Modern Approach to Chemistry (1963) by Jack Stove and Keith Phillips, probably the first Australian chemistry text to sell six figure quantities overseas. In Search of Science (1965) was hailed by Max Harris in the Australian Book Review as 'An all-Australian spectacular.'

The major project of the 70s was the Heinemann Australian Dictionary, the first Australian general dictionary which did not start as an adaptation of an overseas original. As a result, overseas rights were sold, the book appearing in adaptations for the UK, the USA, Canada and New Zealand. It was also probably the first dictionary in the world to be created with an integrated editorial and production computer program.

The 1980s were dominated by trade books, Heinemann Educational Australia having taken over the trade company WHA to form Heinemann Publishers Australia. The best projects were Steve Murray-Smith's The Dictionary of Australian Quotations (1984) and Peter Wright's Spycatcher (1987).

After leaving Heinemann in 1985, Nick Hudson started his own company, Hudson Publishing Services, which provides editorial and production services for third parties and also publishes in its own right. Publishing successes include eleven titles by Kate Llewellyn, including The Waterlily (1987), and six titles by Robin Levett including The Girls (1997) - both bestsellers. The services side specialises in maths books, his customers including Coghill Publishing and Phoenix Educational. His latest project is the adaptation of an Australian maths book for South Africa.

Nick Hudson is author of Modern Australian Usage (OUP, 1993) and a number of other books, articles, academic papers and broadcast talks. He is a Life Member of both the Society of Editors (awarded 1995) and the Australian Publishers Association - the latter having been awarded in recognition of his work on copyright.

Colin JEVONS

Colin Jevons was reasonably well educated despite attending Manchester Grammar School and graduating from Monash, Swinburne and the University of Melbourne.

He was a graduate trainee at Macmillan in 1979, becoming southern states sales manager (which meant sales rep for the colder half of Australia) before moving to Edward Arnold in an editorial capacity in 1980. From Edward Arnold he went to Nelson in 1983, where he rose to Publisher before the traditional restructure saw him becoming a consultant in 1990. In the mean time, he had been part of the group that developed what is now the Centre for Publishing Studies at RMIT, being chair of the course development and advisory committees. A stint at Collins Booksellers was followed by a job as marketing manager at OUP, from which he was also made redundant in 1992 on the appointment of a new CEO. Observant readers will note that the only firm to employ him that did not either pay him to leave or go broke soon after was Macmillan, where he hardly stayed long enough to do any lasting damage. He therefore left the book industry to become a business academic, in which role he does occasionally look knowingly at books.

Colin was at various times Secretary, Treasurer and President of the Society of Editors. Once he was safely out of the industry, the Society granted him honorary life membership in 1995, an award of which he is genuinely proud.

Renée OTMAR

Renée Otmar was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa. In 1986, she came to Australia as a young immigrant, with no money or familial support and few skills. What she did have was a strong work ethic, a thirst for learning and an enormous appetite for fun and adventure.

In 1989, Renée started editing manuscripts for publication while working as an administrative assistant in the Key Centre for Gerontology Research and Education at the Abbotsford Convent campus of La Trobe University. Her editing career began in earnest when the printing and publications unit poached her to become its in-house editor at the main La Trobe University campus, Bundoora. Since then, Renée has amassed considerable in-house and freelance experience in editing and publishing. In 2005, she took her first step towards independent publishing, with a novel by the Western Australian writer John Cregan.

Renée is also a published author, having written a true crime/memoir (In Cold Blood: The murder of baby Jordan, New Africa Books, 2007), a scientific paper for a refereed journal ('Patterns of treatment in Australian men following fracture', Osteoporosis International, 2010) and hundreds of fact sheets, brochures, booklets, guides and website content on prevention of harm due to alcohol and other drugs (Australian Drug Foundation, 2002-08).

On her own and in partnership with editor Sally Woollett, Renée has designed and presented countless workshops and seminars training editors in basic business and marketing skills, including to RMIT University's Graduate Diploma in Editing and Publishing students. A confident public speaker, she has delivered presentations at conferences, seminars, workshops and other professional development courses.

Currently, she juggles freelance writing and editing with PhD research investigating barriers to osteoporosis treatment.

Renée holds a Bachelor of Arts (Politics and Media Studies) from Swinburne University, the Graduate Diploma in Editing and Publishing and a Master of Arts (Communication) from RMIT University, and a Master of Public Health from The University of Melbourne.

Renée joined the Society of Editors (Victoria) in 1992 and served on its committee for fourteen consecutive years, including three terms as president. She was a founding member of the Council of Australian Societies of Editors (CASE) in 1998, and took an active role in its progression towards a national organisation for editors in 2005 - the Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd). Renée was a foundation member of the Occasional Series on Australian Editors Working Group (2004-06).

Renée Otmar was awarded honorary life membership of the Society of Editors (Victoria) in 2000 and the honorary award of Distinguished Editor by IPEd in 2008.

Teresa PITT

Teresa Pitt graduated BA from The University of Melbourne in 1974 with majors in English Literature and Politics. She began her editorial and publishing career as a trainee editor at Greenhouse Publications in 1980. Over a twenty-six-year career she held various positions as an editor, a senior editor, a publisher and a commissioning editor, with organisations including The Institute of Family Studies, Pitman Publishing, Currey O'Neil Ross, Lloyd O'Neil Pty Ltd, Penguin Books Australia (twice), William Heinemann Australia, The Macmillan Company of Australia, Melbourne University Press, Simon & Schuster (Australia) and Lothian Books.

She taught Editing 2 in the Associate Diploma of Arts (Professional Writing and Editing) course at RMIT TAFE for five years from 1992 to 1996 as well as guest lecturing in the RMIT Graduate Diploma in Editing and Publishing during the same period. She was Speaker Secretary for the Society of Editors (Victoria) in 1982-83 and President in 1983-84 and 1984-85.

Teresa was a member of the Society's Working Party on Training and Accreditation from 1985 to 1989 (the group which developed and established the Graduate Diploma in Editing and Publishing at RMIT) and a member of the Course Advisory Committee for the same course from 1989 to 1992. She was made an Honorary Life Member of the Society of Editors (Victoria) in 1986.

Wendy SUTHERLAND (1936- )

Wendy Sutherland was born in Melbourne, Victoria. Wendy's early interest in literature and reading was fostered in a household of books, and by an inspiring English teacher at school, who also encouraged her to go on with Latin to what was then called Matriculation level. Having graduated as a Bachelor of Arts (French and English) from the University of Melbourne, she worked in private and municipal libraries before making the obligatory overseas trip. (Wendy had also gained a preliminary certificate in librarianship while finishing her degree.)

On return to Australia, she began editorial life at Oxford University Press, Melbourne, as a result of a blind leap of faith on the part of Frank Eyre, OUP's manager. Her only previous experience of editing had been with the school magazine (which didn't impress Eyre at all), but the library course helped a lot with definitions of bleeding plates, preliminary pages and so on. No one could have had a better mentor. Wendy became a Founding Member (one of nine) of the Society of Editors during that time at OUP; and later, in 1987, she became one of the first Honorary Life Members of the Society.

After nineteen years at OUP, with brief interludes occasioned by the birth of two children (wonderful) and a year in Darwin (challenging), Wendy joined Melbourne University Press in 1978 as Editorial Manager. Despite the title, most of the work was 'hands on', and she was also responsible for the training of junior editors. She has been freelance since 1995, working for both of the above, as well as UWAP, Hyland House, Simon & Schuster, Lothian, CUP, Allen & Unwin and Aboriginal Studies Press.

During her time at MUP Wendy won the Barbara Ramsden award three times, and in 1994 was the recipient of the University's Gold Medal.

Professional affiliations include membership of the Committee responsible for the fourth edition of the Australian Government's Style Manual for authors, editors and printers, Guest Lecturer in Scholarly Editing for RMIT University's second-year students in the Graduate Diploma in Editing and Publishing, and as a member of the Publishing Advisory Committee for the Australian Music Examinations Board (since about 1980, she thinks!) Wendy has also participated in occasional grammar workshops run by the Society of Editors.

Wendy Sutherland was nominated for honorary life membership of the Society of Editors in 1987.

Basil WALBY, MA MSc CChem MRSC FIMA (1968- )

Basil Walby was educated at Latymer Upper School and King's College, London, where he read Chemistry and Mathematics before gaining an honours degree and corporate membership of the Royal Institute of Chemistry and The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.

He was Editor-in-Chief to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), 1971-1987, and was responsible for developing the publications program of CSIRO. He managed the Australian Journals of Scientific Research; CSIRO's book publishing program; a printing unit set up to produce journals, technical publications, annual reports and publicity material; liaison with comparable science publishers in Australia and overseas to extend the reach of CSIRO material; in-house training and education of CSIRO staff employed in knowledge transfer, librarians and divisional information officers and editors; promotion of the above activities.

Basil Walby Publishing Services Pty. Ltd. has offered a wide range of consultancies since July 1987. Clients have included the International Bureau for Plant Genetic Resources, the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, the Australian Defence Department, the Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute, ANZAAS and the University of Melbourne.

Basil Walby was a founding member of the Society of Editors (1970) and has been twice President and served many years on the committee. He was President in 1974/5 and 1982/3 (with Teresa Pitt). He was Treasurer in 1976/7 and 1977/8 and was responsible for Training in 1977/8 (with Anne Godden) and 1982/3 (with Tessa Jones and John Bangsund). He was a member of the AGPS Style Manual review committee and the inaugural RMIT advisory group for the Graduate Diploma in Editing and Publishing. Basil Walby was nominated for honorary life membership of the Society of Editors in 1987.

Lee WHITE

Lee White was born at the bush nursing hospital at Springwood in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales towards the end of the Second World War, just avoiding being a 'baby boomer'. Her family later moved to Victoria in the early 1950s.

In 1965, having decided against a career as a professional musician, and after dropping out of the Law course at the University of Melbourne, Lee tumbled into editing when she answered an advertisement seeking a secretary for the managing director of Sun Books, a 'new Australian publishing company'. The managing director was Brian Stonier and the editorial director was Geoffrey Dutton, who then lived in Kapunda, South Australia. Gradually, Lee started doing basic editorial work and became more involved with the editorial side of publishing. After about two years with the company, she travelled to the UK and received further editorial training at William Collins Ltd and, briefly, with other London book publishers.

Returning to Australia, Lee White was appointed editor at Sun Books and worked for the company through its vicissitudes until it became the paperback imprint of the Macmillan Company of Australia, and the Sun Books team became Macmillan employees. Lee was appointed senior editor at Macmillan and later publisher of Macmillan's Australian Literature list.

After a decade in the book publishing industry, Lee sought a change. She became the public relations officer for the National Gallery of Victoria and then moved to Monash University as publications officer, and commenced freelance editing and journalism. She completed a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and went on to complete a Master's degree at Murdoch University. Personal circumstances required a move out of Melbourne, and from 1984 Lee has worked full time as a freelance book editor for many mainstream book publishers in Australia.

Lee White has been involved in book publishing for over forty years, working with a wide range of Australia's well-known general and academic authors including Patsy Adam-Smith, Geoffrey Blainey, Roland Robinson, Bryce Courtenay, Stephen Murray-Smith and Pam Peters. She was made an Honorary Life Member of the Society of Editors (Victoria) in 1986.

Jackie YOWELL (1947- )

Jackie's publishing career began as an editor with Longmans in Kenya, where she was born and raised. After travelling in Europe, she came to Melbourne in 1972 to work with Longman Australia. Her 35-year career spans the spectrum: trade, educational and specialist lists; fiction and non-fiction; for adults and children. She worked in publishing houses large and small, including in-house with Cheshire, Lansdowne and Five Mile Press, as well as a period freelancing. A decade in the 1980s with Penguin Books Australia was especially memorable, when 'a great team published zealously – to map Australia's culture', with authors ranging from Thea Astley to Gough Whitlam. Jackie twice received the Barbara Ramsden Award – won jointly with Susan Hawthorne for Jessica Anderson's Stories from the Warm Zone, and with Margit Meinhold for Mark Henshaw's Out of the Line of Fire.

In 1992 Jackie established Silver Gum Press, publishing a list that included Irena Sibley's best-selling children's classic, The Bilby's First Easter. In 1997 she joined Allen & Unwin as a publisher, merging Silver Gum's list with Allen & Unwin's. She has developed adult non-fiction titles with authors like Tim Costello, Anne Deveson and Anna Lanyon as a consulting publisher with Allen & Unwin.

Alongside her publishing career, Jackie also guest-lectured on publishing at RMIT, Monash and Victoria universities and at TAFE colleges; and worked on committees of arts and community organisations like the Spoleto Festival, Victorian Writers' Centre, Community Arts Network, Victorian Ministry of the Arts, Brotherhood of St Laurenceand Australian Society magazine. Pursuing her interest in other cultures through part-time study at Melbourne University, in 2005 she completed a postgraduate diploma in anthropology.

Jackie was among the first members of the Society of Editors, becoming a committee member in May 1971. As newsletter editor in 1972, she printed the Society's newsletter on Cheshire's gestetner machine. During the 1970s, she was involved, with other Society members, in training, surveying salaries and moving to win union support for editors. Jackie was a keynote speaker at the 2005 Editing in Context conference, and in 2006 the Society of Editors (Victoria) awarded her honorary life membership.