Who We Are

  • Lorne Forsyth - Chairman

    Lorne Forsyth became Chairman of Elliott & Thompson at the beginning of 2009 and relaunched the company with the first titles under its new management being published in autumn of that year.

    He commenced his career in the retail sector before gaining an MBA at INSEAD. Following this he joined Schroders corporate finance in 1985 before moving to Morgan Grenfell (subsequently acquired by Deutsche Bank) where he developed expertise in the automotive and engineering industries, becoming head of the automotive sector practice. He then joined the investment banking division of HSBC as global head of the automotive and engineering sectors.

    At Elliott & Thompson, Lorne is responsible for the overall strategic direction of the company and works closely with its editorial team in determining and refining its editorial policy (primarily “smart narrative non-fiction”) as well as assisting in the development of authors’ writing careers. He is also responsible for the worldwide sales and distribution arrangements the company has in place.
    Outside of Elliott & Thompson, Lorne is involved in selected charitable activities, is an investor in a small number of start-up companies and shares his own entrepreneurial and City experience with those contemplating entrepreneurial activity.

  • Olivia Bays - Director

    Olivia Bays joined Elliott & Thompson in January 2011. One of the company's directors, she also commissions and edits a select number of titles. She read English at Downing College, Cambridge, before starting out in publishing at Profile and Walker Books.

    Her extensive editorial experience includes legal books and journals (for OUP and Kluwer) and starting up a public-facing magazine for the Commission for Racial Equality. She was a commissioning editor at co-edition packager Elwin Street Publications, developing non-fiction titles for international publishers such as HarperCollins, Virgin, Wiley and A&C Black, and has worked as a freelance editor for clients including RotoVision, Quintet Publishing, and the Trades Union Congress.

  • Jennie Condell - Director

    Jennie Condell joined Elliott & Thompson as Publisher in July 2013, having worked with the company as an editor since 2011. Her varied career has encompassed many years freelance editing, researching and developing titles across trade non-fiction and fiction, illustrated and co-edition publishing and educational publishing, as well as copywriting and editing for marketing and communications agencies.

    Past clients have included Thames & Hudson, Penguin, Pan Macmillan, Granta and Portobello Books, Quercus and Virgin Books. Her career began at the Orion Publishing Group where she was managing editor of Weidenfeld & Nicolson Illustrated until 2006, working closely with high-profile authors on a range of bestselling titles.

    She read European Studies at University College London and holds an MA in Contemporary History and Politics from Birkbeck.

  • Katie Bond - Publisher

    Katie Bond joined Elliott & Thompson as Publisher in 2024. She is a lifelong bibliophile who grew up in Scotland, read English at Oxford University and started out in the book trade as a bookseller at Hatchards. She has twenty-five years publishing experience working for Penguin Random House, Hachette, Bloomsbury, the National Trust and Aurum. She was Publicity & Marketing Director for Bloomsbury for 15 years with career highlights including the launch of the Harry Potter series, the Booker Prize for Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin and publishing the bestselling Cold Mountain, Eat Pray Love, The Kite Runner, Operation Mincemeat, The Song of Achilles and Schott’s Miscellanies. Katie has commissioned prize-winning fiction and non-fiction for adults and children. A passionate advocate for authors and their work, she enjoys the deep immersion of editing a manuscript, creating beautiful books and promoting them to the widest possible readership. Katie lives in south-east London with her husband, two teenage children and the dog.

  • Sarah Rigby - Publishing Director

    Sarah Rigby is Publishing Director for Elliott & Thompson, having joined in summer 2019 to cover parental leave for Publisher Jennie Condell. Recent acquisitions for E&T include: Nancy Campbell’s 50 Words for Snow; Rebecca Schiller’s forthcoming memoir and Bernadette Russell’s How to Be Hopeful.

    Previous to this role, Sarah was Senior Editor at Hutchinson – an imprint of Penguin Random House – where her bestselling and acclaimed authors included Leah Hazard (Hard Pushed: A Midwife’s Story); Professor Alice Roberts (Tamed: Ten Species that Changed Our World); Shaun Usher (Speeches of Note); and Rob Cowen, whose Common Ground was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize and voted one of Britain’s top three nature books of all time. She also led the team that created the international and Sunday Times bestseller Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Francesc Miralles and Héctor García. Her publishing career began at independent Atlantic Books after studying English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

    She has been a mentor for The WoMentoring Project and the WriteNow scheme for underrepresented writers and was named a Bookseller Rising Star in 2014, in addition to being shortlisted for the Kim Scott Walwyn Prize for women in publishing. Originally from Yorkshire, she now lives in London with her husband and daughter.

  • Pippa Crane - Editorial Director

    Pippa Crane joined Elliott & Thompson as senior editor in May 2013. Having studied History at the University of Warwick, she started her publishing career at co-edition packager Elwin Street Productions in 2006, becoming managing editor in 2012, where she was responsible for the production of a wide variety of illustrated non-fiction titles for the international market, including publishing partners such as Bloomsbury and Princeton University Press.

  • Marianne Thorndahl - Operations Manager

    Marianne Thorndahl joined Elliott & Thompson as operations manager in February 2015. She commenced her publishing career at co-edition packager Elwin Street Productions in 2012, primarily focusing on international rights and office management.

    Having graduated with a first-class BA in English Literature from University of Westminster, Marianne also received an MA in Comparative Literature from Goldsmiths University.

  • Amy Greaves - Head of Publicity & Marketing

    Amy Greaves joined Elliott & Thompson as Head of Publicity in May 2022. Amy has over 8 years’ experience in delivering stand-out publicity campaigns, most recently with Bloomsbury Publishing’s Special Interest division where she worked with authors including Rebecca Wragg Sykes (Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art), Helen Scales (The Brilliant Abyss), and The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby (Reimagining Britain). Previously she worked at Laurence King Publishing where she managed the campaign for internationally bestselling Around the World in 80 Trees by Jonathan Drori.

    An English Literature graduate at Cardiff University, her publishing career began at Amberley Publishing.