Roland Elliott Brown

When I have reviewed books—for The Observer, The Spectator, The Critic, and the Canadian newspapers The National Post and The Globe and Mail—I have sometimes wished I had been able to speak to the author of a work under review before they had gone to print rather than having to deliver my criticisms in a public forum.

Writing can be a tough, isolating process, and many writers find that they need outside perspectives as the number of pages written and the amount of time invested accumulate.

I offer professional editorial insights: forthright commentary and criticism, probing questions, and—because I only take on projects I believe in—steady encouragement. I bring my experience as an author and journalist, including my collaboration with FUEL Publishing on Godless Utopia, my writing on Russian political and intellectual life for New Lines, and my years of writing about Iran, which included contributions to The Guardian and Foreign Policy.

Editorial Collaboration: The Ice Ship (2023-current)

In late 2022, I was approached by Neil Harrison, an accomplished photographer and book designer with an impressive body of work from his time aboard the Russian icebreaker Akademik Fyodorov on the 46th Russian Antarctic Expedition in 2001. Although decades had elapsed since his voyage, he had documented it meticulously through diary notes, photographs, and a personal archive of Russian and Soviet Antarctic souvenirs and ephemera. He had already completed a handsomely-designed prototype of the book with photographs, maps, and an accompanying text, but wanted an outside perspective and—in view of Russia’s ongoing aggression in Ukraine—some suggestions about how to contrast the relatively free and open-mined Russian zeitgeist of the early 2000s with the darkness of the current one.

Our collaboration began with a detailed reader’s report I provided based on Neil’s prototype, and has continued with in-person and online critiques of his chapter revisions as he has written them. According to Neil,

I approached Roland to help with a travel memoir: an illustrated account of journeying to Antarctica with the Russians. From the starting point of my original draft, he has helped transform the narrative into a much wider-ranging story that delves into my own relationship with Russia, Soviet history, and contemporary geopolitics. Roland has been invaluable in “drawing the story out” by questioning and challenging my experiences to distil them into a tightly edited and much more dramatic form. His knowledge and personal experience of Russia has been a vital resource. The process of writing with Roland has been comprehensive, a journey in itself.

To propose a project for editorial assistance, please write to me with a brief outline via the contact form.