Caroline Harris

Personal statement

Lecturer, Publishing Caroline Harris is a non-fiction editor and author (including Ms Harris’s Book of Green Household Management, John Murray) with more than 20 years’ experience in journalism and publishing, including as a Senior Editor at the Observer and Express newspapers. Her breadth of expertise and creativity – from high-profile books, to magazines (Sunday Telegraph, Times, Screen International), to online (Avis UK, Lawn Tennis Association) – is teamed with rigour and attention to editorial and visual detail.

She is the co-founder of Bath-based illustrated book business Harris + Wilson, where she continues her professional publishing practice as Creative Consultant. She has commissioned and developed a range of sought-after lifestyle and cult food books for leading UK and international publishers such as Quadrille, Simon and Schuster and Murdoch Books. Projects include titles for respected food brands, such as Pieminister pies, and Dorset Cereals: The Breakfast Book, Melt: Ice Creams from Ginger's Comfort Emporium, Bread Revolution and the Ella’s Kitchen cookbook series, for the leading organic children's food brand. She has been a seminar speaker at the London Book Fair (2015) on the subject of The ‘Real’ New Publishing.

Caroline teaches across all three years of the Publishing course and directs milk – the multi-platform magazine produced by Publishing students. She is module coordinator for PB5008: Commissioning and Editing Images and PB6006: Food Writing and Editing, and mentors the third-years who run milk.

She is interested in designing innovative and creative modules that allow students to understand the current disruptions in the publishing industry, develop relevant critical thinking and practical skills, and make the most of the opportunities that these developments offer. She has collaborated with Publishing Subject Leader Katharine Reeve on Create Lab: Future Producers (first-year module) and Digital Social Innovation and Enterprise (second-year module).

Also an inspiring photo stylist incorporating vintage with handmade to create memorable illustrations for a variety of books, Caroline most recently worked on Fern Verrow: Recipes from the Farm Kitchen with celebrated photographer Tessa Traeger.

Other work for Bath Spa University includes overseeing production of the MA Creative Writing and MA Writing for Young People anthologies. 

Academic qualifications

• MA Creative Writing (Poetry), Royal Holloway, University of London (Distinction; awarded University of London Prize)
• BA (Hons) Clare College, University of Cambridge

Areas of expertise

• Illustrated non-fiction publishing
• Writing and editing across multiple platforms – for print, web, journalism, social media
• Developing a variety of publishing products – from print newspapers that students put together in a day-long workshop (Create Lab), to magazines, to samplers for recipe books (Food Writing and Editing)
• The relationship of text and image in publishing – from book and magazine photography and design considerations to curating visual social media
• The renaissance of print