A life in words

I am Pat Roberts: a London-based writer and communications, issues & crisis consultant.

But primarily a writer.

Guilty of hundreds of thousands of words: corporate (often highly confidential) materials, content for media campaigns & announcements, words for speeches. Persuasive advice. Clarity, mainly, but sometimes, I confess, obfuscation where needed. Delivered with the benefit of, ahem ... maturity, worldly experience, calm, discretion and commonsense.

I am not a specialist in “creative writing” as practised by alumni of the University of Norwich and other schools. Try elsewhere for that. I try to write with a cooler, maybe more formal touch. Perhaps that comes from working in government, notably in Britain’s Diplomatic Service (South East Asia, West Africa, Brussels, Paris …).

Before that I studied foreign languages & literature at various European universities then the University of Oxford. Classic training in understanding the power of language and wordsmithery.

25 years in government led to another long career in London’s public relations field, in agencies large and small and as an independent consultant. These years, with a challenging variety of client issues and stakeholder complexities, opened up a broader galaxy of verbal harmonics. Perhaps a richer vernacular.