Word Ferret - For the Love of Words

This post is about the origins of Word Ferret, our copywriting business.

I met Gina when she was 17 and I was 18. It was love at first sight and this year marks our 38th anniversary together.

Gina’s absolute passion for words, languages, books, writing, and research has been the centre of our world.

Our first date included her showing me her small, precious library. Our early dates included a significant time spent in Birmingham Central Library, Europe’s largest public reference library. When we moved in together, we couldn’t afford furniture (not even a bed), but the first thing we bought was a bookcase. When we married, the money we received as a gift was spent on books.

Over the years, our library has grown so much that I can’t enter our study because the floor is covered by piles of books. We have donated several thousand books, including first editions and rare sets, to charities and to the local college library. Even now, she is sitting in the middle of 25 books while writing an eye-opening biography of a forgotten Victorian female author for Nezu Press, one of the few female owned and run independent publishers.

In 2007, Gina collapsed and nearly died. Her recovery was long and complicated - she could barely function and her memory was severely compromised for over eighteen months. Then, one day, she woke up and said, “I’m going to write my book”. She did more than that. Within three months, she wrote two highly acclaimed academic lifeworks and she also wrote her first novel that went on to be a local bestseller in four counties.

The pictures here were taken just a few months after she ‘woke up’. The wall that she is signing is a private room at Waterstone’s in Bath, one of their flagship stores, where famous authors are invited to sign it. Gina was so thrilled to sign her name next to Stephen Fry. After her early book signings, she was always so weak that I practically had to prop her up on the way back to the car, but these were some of the most precious memories I have. She was so happy.

Word Ferret and Nezu Press are not just businesses to us, they are an expression of our love for words that we share through our work.