Team
We are ghosts. We work on your behalf, unseen and confidential.
We write non-fiction, biography, memoirs, novels, screenplays, scripts, letters, articles, essays and graphic works across all shades and genres but we write them without credit. We are anonymous, a hidden adaptable team who have both substantial general expertise and key specialities. We don’t shy away from difficult subjects and do not write celebrity memoirs.
We provide literary services inside and outside the publishing industry, in all genres and across a diverse range of media platforms. Story, structure and good writing remain central to our thinking and our business.
Who are we? A creative team of writers, authors, scriptwriters, editors and journalists who adopt a team approach to literary development. We provide the full range of author services, from copyediting an essay to writing your film screenplay.
We focus on the big book projects, helping you write your life story or your novel. We have the experience to conduct the interviews and re-structure content to help it achieve its true potential. LGC are one core team but we work with other external writers on some projects when required. Please meet us, the main gang, below.
Luke Shipman; Ghostwriter, Story Consultant, Founder
Luke’s twenty-year career in story development began making short films and editing video, which taught him the fundamentals of structure and narrative. He studied film theory, has a BA in Film & Video and an MA in Scriptwriting. After university he went on to write books and script as a writer for hire, working for publishers and privately as a ghostwriter. He has worked as lead writer, consultant and editor on hundreds of commissions for companies and people around the globe, advising one-to-one and in groups, and he has gone on to establish LGC as a significant literary service in the publishing world today. He teaches and hosts workshops on the power of thoughts, as well as reasons why craft helps a person to become physically strong and mentally developed. His knowledge of how experience shapes biography deepens his thematic explorations as a writer, editor and consultant. He works from his home in South London, guiding clients through their creative projects by helping them find the true theme to their story. He likes mountains, travelling with a backpack, boxing, and painting. He loves meeting new people, hearing their stories, and is the go-to man to start your project.
Ashley Stokes; Writer, Ghostwriter, Editor
Ashley is the author of Gigantic (Unsung Stories), The Syllabus of Errors and Touching the Starfish (Unthank Books) and has over thirty stories published in Black Static, BFS Horizons, The Lonely Crowd, Nightscript, and London Magazine, among others. His editorial experience includes over 900 projects for The Literary Consultancy. He has written reviews, features and copy, and both novels and non-fiction as a ghost. Founder of the Unthank School of Writing, he has taught creative writing from adult outreach to MA level for the University of East Anglia, Norwich University College of the Arts and the Open University. Educated at Oxford University and UEA, he achieved degrees in Modern History and Creative Writing. A writer of literary, comic, historical and weird-speculative fiction, he is interested in pretty much everything.
Due to his wide skillset Ashley plays a key role as a consultant at LGC, providing story and editorial support, helping to ensure a winning structure and pace on all projects. His role will involve contributing to research, fact-checking and stress-testing material so to help it achieve its most powerful and emotive form. His knowledge of how to research historical periods and collect vivid social details help provide any other writer with the support they need to keep a project authentic, moving and evolving.
Ruth Learner; Writer, Editor
Ruth’s published work includes non-fiction books, a novel, short stories, features and reviews. She taught for six years in Professional Writing and Editing programmes for the RMIT University (Melbourne) and NMIT (Melbourne) and has a PhD in English Literature (La Trobe University).
Ruth’s professional editing experience spans more than twenty-five years. She works globally for clients in the UK, Europe, the US and Australia. She has worked closely editing fiction for trade publishers, ghost writers and literary agencies, as well as editing non-fiction for government, corporate and non-government organisations, and academic publishing. With decades of experience, a great love of literature and a deep understanding of what makes a story align, Ruth is involved in all big projects at LGC.
Jacqueline Haigh; Writer, Scriptwriter, Story Consultant
With a seventeen-year career working as a professional writer and story consultant, and with a sideline vocation as a performer, Jacqueline is an expert story consultant, able to re-engineer your creation whilst enhancing its drama and quality. Having written for film, TV, stage, radio and books, she is the brains when it comes to story design and structure. She has script-edited hundreds of films of every genre and for a variety of writers, directors and producers. She has written and directed award winning short films and stage plays and is currently in development on several young adult and children’s books, is co-writing an autobiography and working as ghostwriter on several memoir projects. As a performer, she has worked with actors and directors in theatre and on screen. She particularly loves comedy and often performs in shows and stand up. She has a BA Honours in English Literature – Oxford University, and an MA in Scriptwriting – Goldsmiths College, University Of London, where she was awarded the Olive Till Memorial bursary. Having taught scriptwriting for Film London, London Film Academy, and the University of Essex, Jacqueline is our lead writer when it comes to any screenplay. Her favourite genres include fantasy, comedy and British drama. With an encyclopaedic knowledge of anything spiritual, mystical, conspiratorial and all things magic, Jacqueline is our go-to girl if your story takes place in a galaxy far far away…
James Baxter; Writer, Researcher, Tutor, Editor, Proofreader
James is the author of Samuel Beckett’s Legacies in American Fiction which was released by Palgrave in 2021. He has published widely, contributing to academic journals, as well as a variety of arts and culture magazines such as PopMatters, Entropy and The Modernist Review. He has a passion for storytelling and is particularly interested in off-beat writing that is playful and adopts unorthodox formal structures.
James graduated with a BA from the University of Liverpool and went on to study for an MA and PhD at the University of Reading where he completed his research on the impact of Samuel Beckett in 20th and 21st century American culture.
He is currently an IRC Early Career Postdoctoral Fellow at Trinity College Dublin where he is working on a 2-year study concerning post-45 American periodical culture and ‘mass-market modernism.’ James is an editor for the arts magazine Hypocrite Reader.
Our pool includes 30 other writers who are brought onto projects when their skill set is required. For writers enquiring about work, please provide key links to published works, and articles.