Dr West completed her PhD in summer 2021, as part of Reading’s Collections-Based Research programme. She used material from the British Publishing Archive to investigate the impact of editorial attitudes and decisions on the publication of children’s literature, by focussing on a group of women editors and authors who influenced the industry during the period between 1930-1960.
She has presented papers at the IRSCL Congress, Stockholm 2019; Women in Publishing Symposium, Reading 2019; 25th NCRCL MA/IBBY UK Conference, Roehampton 2018; and Children’s History Society Conference, Greenwich 2018. Publications include “For ever and ever”: The Nostalgic Appeal of Swallows and Amazons, Roundtable, 2(1), 5. (Roehampton) and (in process) a chapter in the forthcoming The Edinburgh Companion to Women in Publishing, 1900-2000 (EUP). She was the recipient of the David Almond Fellowship, Seven Stories/University of Newcastle 2018
Her current research interests are focused on collections within the British Publishing Archive, including a project focusing on the archive of Heinemann’s New Windmill series of books for secondary school students, published from 1950-80. She is also using the Chatto & Windus archive to investigate the career of Norah Smallwood, editor.
Dr West also holds the Michael Twyman Research Fellowship in Ephemera Studies 2021, and is working on a project to increase the accessibility and profile of a wonderful collection of bookplates held in the Centre for Ephemera Studies in the Department of Typography.