Meet the team

Dawn Franklin

Children's Book Specialist

Dawn has spent 30 years teaching children from Nursery to Year 6 (and still has most of her hair!!)

She joined Peters in 2017 after retiring from teaching. She enjoys reading and reviewing children’s books (she can usually find something positive in every book) and passing on her love of reading to her growing family of grandchildren.

Debbie Bradley

Children's Librarian

Diane Gill

Professional Services Manager

A chartered librarian with over 30 years of experience, Diane has been with Peters for over 20 years and manages the Librarian and Bibliographic team.

Diane particularly likes science-fiction and fantasy, especially anything by Terry Pratchett.

Emma McElwee

Children's Librarian

Emma joined Peters in 2016. She previously worked in Swindon Libraries as Lead Librarian for the Children and Young People's team.

Helen Rosser

Librarian - Adult Stock Developer

Helen has experience selecting adult stock as part of her work in public libraries, as well as working in academic libraries at the University of Birmingham. Prior to this she also worked in non-fiction publishing.

She strongly believes in the benefits of reading for pleasure for wellbeing, and enjoys thrillers, literary fiction and whatever happens to be the blockbuster hit of the moment.

Katie Merrick

Children's Librarian

Katie has several years’ experience in public libraries, running toddler rhyme time and teenage reading groups, and has also worked as a secondary school librarian.

An avid reader of anything and everything, she particularly enjoys historical teen fiction, junior fiction about ponies, and picture books about dogs!

Laura Hayward

Children's Librarian

Laura deals mostly with supplier selections for libraries and secondary schools. She brings knowledge of academic and adult stock from her previous post at Birmingham University and a graduate traineeship at The Oxford Union Society Library.

Lucy Forrester

Children's Librarian

Lucy worked as a children’s librarian in Warwickshire public libraries before joining Peters over ten years ago. She is the company’s comics and manga specialist, and was an assistant organiser for the Birmingham Comic Con for several years. Now she often gives talks to librarians and teachers on how to use this format most effectively. 

As well as being on the judging panels for the Information Book Award and Excelsior Award, she has spoken at YLG conferences and SLA events. 

Lucy McConnell

Senior Children's Book Specialist

Lucy has spent her life surrounded by books. An avid reader from a young age, she had Saturday jobs in the local library then completed a degree in English Literature before working for Nielsen providing bibliographic data to Amazon and Waterstones. Now she helps to select books for schools, including overseeing and advising on class sets. 

Melanie Crawford

Operations Manager

Mel trained as a librarian before joining Dillons as a buyer. She has been with Peters for longer than anyone remembers, with only a brief break to raise two daughters and get first-hand experience of the importance of getting great books into schools.

Mel is an avid reader of literary fiction and gruesome crime novels – and is also the team's most passionate advocate of poetry.  

Michaela Owen

Children's Librarian

Michaela previously worked at Camden and Hackney libraries and has over 20 years’ experience including several years at Camden SLS.  In between, she taught Fine Art at the London College of Fashion for 8 years. 

Michaela loves illustration, printmaking, and nature. She also really loves how books can develop and educate young minds.

Natalie Wise

Children's Book Specialist

Natalie joined Peters after working with Upper KS2 and KS3 children as a school librarian. Prior to this, she completed an MSc in Information and Library Management and worked at the University of Birmingham’s library for over 10 years.

In her downtime, Natalie enjoys reading mysteries and light popular fiction.

Stephanie Horton

Children's Book Specialist

Stephanie joined the Peters team in 2020 after working as a secondary school librarian and science teaching assistant. Her areas of expertise are KS3 and Accelerated Reader books, and she is a firm advocate for the importance of access to books for everyone.

In her spare time, she enjoys reading horror, crime, mystery and thriller titles.

Zeena Ark

Children's Book Specialist

Zeena was a junior school teacher for 34 years before joining Peters. She has also tried a variety of other jobs including nannying, ICT, financial consultancy, and even managing a diet clinic on Harley Street, but teaching was the only thing to give her real job satisfaction.

She joined the Peters team in early 2019 and is having lots of fun reading picture books!

Chris Humphries

Service Delivery Manager

Chris joined Peters in 2004 and has worked across multiple areas of the business. He is now responsible for overseeing and developing the services we provide to our public library customers, and enjoys thinking of ways to improve processes to benefit our customers. A keen reader, he enjoys true crime books – although his favourite book remains George’s Marvellous Medicine! When he’s not at work, he’ll most likely be found chasing after his cocker spaniel, Luna, in the local park.

Claire Bowles

Sales & Marketing Director

Starting her career in the charity sector before joining Peters in 2014, Claire is passionate about the impact reading for pleasure can have on the lives of children and young people.

She now works closely with schools and partners such as National Literacy Trust, The Reading Agency, EmpathyLab and others who share the same mission: to help give all children the opportunity to develop a love of reading. She also heads up Peters’ giving back project, which supports charities and community initiatives. 

George Wakeman

Customer Relationship Manager

George recently joined Peters after five years’ experience teaching Upper Key Stage 2 pupils at a West Midlands primary school.

Through teaching George has developed a real love of children’s literature, recognising its importance in supporting children’s learning and enriching their lives. He will be using his experience to help other schools find the right books for their pupils.

George also enjoys playing football, golf and badminton – and is an avid supporter of West Bromwich Albion.

Helen Stewart

Educational Relationship Executive

Helen has many years' experience in sales across a range of sectors, with a strong track record in building customer relationships. At Peters, she works closely with schools to understand their unique requirements and help them get the right books into the hands of pupils.

Outside of work, Helen enjoys reading mystery, romance and thriller titles, spending quality time with her family, and she can often be found in the park walking her dog, Monty!

Helena Thornton-Hall

Senior Interior Designer

A graduate of Birmingham City University’s BA Hons in Interior Design, Helena’s final university project was selected as finalist in the Society of British and International Designs (SBID) student competition.

Helena has a passion for photography and graphics, and an interest in colour psychology and style trends – something that she often draws on to inform her designs for schools. She loves that her job gives the opportunity to help inspire young readers.

Isha Kainth

Furniture Manager

From checking designs to liaising with our furniture suppliers and managing our library installations, Isha oversees our projects from start to finish to ensure exemplary customer service. 

Growing up in an Indian household where English wasn't her first language has made Isha determined to help children to succeed at school. She enjoys reading to her daughter every evening, especially books about unicorns and fairies. 

Jacqui Kaylor

Customer Services Co-ordinator

Jacqui leads our customer service team. She has over 20 years’ experience in library and school supply.

She has, to her surprise and increasing dismay, an unparalleled knowledge of the complexities of servicing and EDI...

Jessica McCoy

Interior Design Manager

Since graduating with a first-class BA Hons in Fashion with professional enhancement, Jess has worked in a number of creative design roles with experience in accessories, graphics, Interior Design and arts and crafts. 

Jess is passionate about design, understands the importance of attention to detail, enjoys a challenge, and seeks to create comfortable, efficient learning environments where children can feel relaxed, excited and ambitious about reading.

Jude Evans

Head of Buying

Jude worked in high street retail for 20 years before joining Peters. She leads our buying team and manages our showroom. She loves to read a funny children’s book or relax with a good chick lit novel.

Kulbinder Gill

Production Co-ordinator

Kulbinder (Kulb) has been with the company for over 30 years. She is responsible for making sure that customers receive their orders on time, and particularly enjoys providing support to her team and working with international schools.

After spending all week surrounded by books, she likes to go on walks and spend time with her family.

Lorena Bojthe-Aszalos

Assistant Operations Manager (Bookshop)

Oonagh Towse

Head of Customer Relationships

Oonagh has over twenty years’ experience of working with schools in the UK, and before joining Peters in 2015 she worked for a national public sector procurement organisation.

A lifelong lover of books and reading, Oonagh’s interests outside of work range from travel to cooking. Her role is to provide advice and support for schools and help them get the right books into the hands of readers.

Sophia Thomas

Interior Designer

Sophia has been passionate about interior design from a young age, throwing herself into a range of projects at home! Her love for design led to Sophia gaining a BA (Hons) degree in Interior Architecture and pursuing a career in design after graduating.

Nature is a big part of Sophia’s life, and this is reflected in her interior designs. She enjoys creating calm, welcoming spaces and feels privileged to be designing libraries for schools to help get children excited about reading for
pleasure.

William Scott

EDI Specialist

William, or 'Scott' as he is better known, has over 40 continuous years of library supply experience, having started with Woolstons and Blunts in Nottingham in 1975, and then working in the IT team at Bertrams Library Services.

What he doesn't know about EDI the rest of us can't teach him.