Meet the team

Amanda and Chris

BBR is owned and run by the husband-and-wife team of Chris Reed and Amanda Thompson.


Chris has been in publishing since the early 1980s, when he founded the acclaimed speculative fiction magazine Back Brain Recluse while still at school, and since then has become an accomplished editor, designer and typographer. After graduating in Spanish from the University of Sheffield he stayed on for seven years, working first in PR and then setting up and running the University’s Graphic Design Service, before leaving in 1995 to run BBR full-time.

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With degrees in both social sciences and engineering, Amanda joined BBR in 2001 after 11 years as a transport planner and technical writer working for multinational civil engineering consultancies. Coming from an environment where she routinely had to ensure other people’s copy was consistent and accurate enough to withstand scrutiny at public enquiries, she’s the ideal choice for clients who want editorial work done right first time.

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“Hiring consultants is just like hiring mercenaries … When you choose your mercenary/ consultant, you don’t want the hair-trigger 24-year-old MBA. You want the Yul Brynner, the man in black with a few scars, a piece of ear missing, well used guns, a black hat, and eyes like steel bearings.”

—Geoff Burch, Writing on the Wall