MEET THE TIGERS
founding tigers
RINA GILL
Rina practiced as a solicitor before helping found four successful start-ups, including a literary festival and her own Olivier-award-winning theatre production company. She’s been twice shortlisted for a Nibbie award for best national publicity campaign at the British Book Awards, first at the biggest publishing house and later at one of the smallest, where she won. She was a finalist for the 2021 and 2023 IPG Marketing Award for the Sunday Times bestsellers Cain’s Jawbone and Vic Reeves’s Birds respectively. Rina believes great storytellers come from anywhere and everywhere.
Superpowers: Kamikaze optimism, serendipity manager, the ability to embrace negative capability.
Loves: Big talk not small talk, sitting in the dark watching people on a stage, espresso martinis, being stopped in my tracks.
Books that made me: A Confederacy of Dunces, Supermensch by Shep Gordon, Where the Wild Things Are and anything picaresque, but especially Vanity Fair.
ILONA CHAVASSE
An ex-Soviet American in London and a proud Vassar girl, Ilona began her career in advertising in New York, then worked in TV publicity until jumping ship for publishing as a literary scout. She spent eight years selling subsidiary rights for Atlantic Books, followed by ten years at Oneworld and Unbound, setting up the first in-house rights desk in both, and managing English-language, translation, audiobook and media rights worldwide. She holds an MA in English Literature from UCL, freelances as an editor and is the translator from the Russian of several acclaimed novels, as well as prize-winning reportage and other writing. In her copious spare time she sings, snarks, and hides in places, reading.
Superpowers: Being or becoming interested in almost anything, entropy-wrangling, vocabulary.
Loves: Dogs, gooseberries, Sondheim, J.S. Bach, and the Oxford comma.
Books that made me: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough, The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton and Lace by Shirley Conran.
CLAIRE MORRISON
Claire is an award-winning marketer who began her career at Random House. She has worked on literary and commercial fiction and non-fiction, as well as children's books. She has experience of working at large houses and small presses, both inhouse or freelance, including Headline, Pan Macmillan, Quercus, DK, Welbeck, Weldon Owen Children's Books, Simon & Schuster Children's Books, Insight Editions, Andersen Press and Vintage! She is a proper hybrid worker: three days a week she is a Senior Marketing Manager for What on Earth! and for the other two days is a freelancer. In her spare time, you will find her reading, walking (or cuddling) her dog, playing board games and trying her hand at various crafts (not always successfully).
ASSOCIATE tigers
MARK ECOB
Mark is a highly regarded book cover designer, illustrator and art director, known for his award-winning, creative and commercially effective designs. He’s worked with major publishing houses – including Hodder & Stoughton, Orion, Canongate, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Faber & Faber, Little Brown and others – as well as on self‑publishing projects. His design work has earned recognition from prestigious institutions like D&AD, the Academy of British Cover Design and the British Book Awards.
MATHEW CLAYTON
Mathew has worked for Unbound, The Guardian, Random House, Hachette and Channel 4. He is the founder of the Free University of Glastonbury and author of two books, The Nation's Favourite and Lundy, Rockall, Dogger and Fair Isle: a celebration of the islands round Britain. He runs the annual Caught by the River Day Out and is a trustee of the Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft.