Collection: Offord Road Books

Offord Road Books is a small independent press based in London. ORB was founded in 2017 by poets and editors Martha Sprackland and Patrick Davidson Roberts, with a view to commissioning and publishing pamphlets and full collections of new poetry by authors that the editors find particularly exhilarating, challenging and original.

Who’s who on your team?

ORB was set up by Martha Sprackland and Patrick Davidson Roberts. He's currently taking a break from publishing to focus on other work, but he is the editor of our new book of essays and poems about the work of David Harsent. I run the press, ably assisted by Hannah Williams, who will be taking a larger role as time goes on. 

What events do you get involved with? 

We're always looking for new places for our poets to read. We've good links into UK festivals – A.K. Blakemore will be reading at Port Eliot this week – and enjoy teaming up with other indie presses (ORB hosted a reading with Faber, Bloodaxe, ORB and Akashic poets at the LRB Bookshop in June). We love throwing a good launch party... 

What do you enjoy the most about publishing? 

The authors! There's something magic about working on someone else's poems; like peering through a little window into them. I love hearing them explain and explore and rewire the intricacies of their own work. 

Have you got any office dogs/cats/animals? 

Sadly not! There are plants... but they're not so cute. 

What’s your nearest bookshop? 

We're about equidistant between Ink@84, on Blackstock Road in Highbury, Stoke Newington Bookshop on the High Street, and the secondhand bookshop on Church Street. They're all pretty great. 

If you could meet one author or poet, dead or alive, who would you choose and why?

Diana Athill, editor supreme. Or perhaps Doris Lessing. Sharon Olds was top of my list but I've met her a couple of times, now, and I was starstruck and completely failed to be charming or impressive so it's probably best I never meet any more heroes.