‘When looking for an editor, you probably want someone polite, thoughtful, generous, diligent, informed and perhaps a bit of a nerd. The good news is that Darren Nash is all of these things. But if you leave aside the nuts and bolts of words on a page and dialogue all in the right order, editing is 90% about bridging the gap between what a writer intends to do, and what a reader will actually see. It is about how you use knowledge and craft as a tool to fire not just your imagination, but the minds of anyone who reads your work. To see a story from every side and understand that there are a thousand ways of telling it; to be both a writer immersed in what they’re trying to say and a reader wondering ‘what the hell is this?’ – this is the editor’s art and Darren has it in spades. He doesn’t force you to write any tale other than your own, doesn’t pretend that there’s a ‘right’ way to be a scribbler, but seeks to find the way that excites you, the tools you can use to make that story brilliant, so that everyone else can be excited too.

He also cares a lot about some sporting thing called ‘cricket’ and is a bastion of excellence and humanity both on the page, and in real life.’

Claire North, bestselling author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August