Hill House Publications
Partners: John Stewart-Smith, Barrie Foster
Online
Publishing
Gremline (Managing Editor John
Stewart-Smith). After a successful trial period Gremline was launched as a
free monthly E-zine in early 2007. The objective is to bring flight safety
issues of immediate or general concern to the attention of the General
Aviation community. The target readership includes recreational fixed and
rotary wing flyers, powered and non-powered light aircraft users, air charter
and air taxi companies and ground service providers. As an independent
publisher Gremline is able to examine official accident reports and draw
general lessons from specific incidents — a function that is beyond the remit
of investigating bodies. This approach has produced a favourable reaction
from a number of official organisations, both in the UK and elsewhere.
Gremline also features an Aviation Bookshop, a Pilot Shop a global internet
portal and information resource.
History Unlimited (Managing Editor Barrie
Foster) was launched in June 2006 in association with Amazon. At the core of
the site is a much expanded version of the Bookshop included in these pages,
together with a selection of classic films from 100 years cinema. As at April
2008 the History Unlimited Bookshop features well over 300 titles, organised
by region or period. The Film Store offers some 550 films together with 200
soundtrack albums and literary sources. We are currently building our Blues
and Jazz pages, which to date list around 300 CDs and Boxed Sets. History
Unlimited also contains reviews, information, comment and articles together
with a links portal.
Editorial Services
As an
extension to its core publishing activity, Hill House Publications now
offers copywriting and editorial services in a number of specialist subject
areas. John Stewart-Smith and Barrie Foster have many years experience of
working with the written and spoken word across a broad spectrum of
applications and media. These have included marketing, information and
interpretative media, training media, and commissioned articles for
specialist interest and professional press. We are also able to advise on the
content and construction of web sites. Our particular areas of expertise are
outlined below and are supported by considerable reference libraries.
Both partners have worked professionally as photographers. Both have
well-established photo libraries which have been placed at the disposal of
clients during media projects and used in support of written material.
Tourism & Leisure
Barrie
Foster’s experience in tourism and leisure development and marketing is
summarised on this web site. Much of his work in the more specialist areas of
the leisure sector has been informed by personal experience. He has had a
lifelong involvement with outdoor pursuits. He began hill walking and rock
climbing in his early teens and later served as an Expedition Training Team
Leader in the Royal Air Force, instructing rock climbing, mountaineering and
ski touring. He has climbed all over the UK, in upland areas of Germany and
in the Bavarian, Austrian and Italian Alps (completing two first winter
ascents in the Sud Tyrol). Other outdoor activities include watersports and
country sports. On a more cerebral level his long term interests include
literature, the arts and history (see below).
Over the past twenty years he has produced copy for marketing
campaigns, information media, training applications and in support of
interpretative planning. Barrie trained formally in photography and later
completed training in periodical journalism under the aegis of the National
Council for the Training of Journalists. In the 1970s, alongside his
marketing services activities, he acted as production editor for a number of
specialist interest and trade magazines. He has designed and produced
training materials in support of training workshops and seminars or distance
learning programmes. He has authored or contributed to a number of
operational manuals, including “So You Want To Make a Video” for the Wales
Tourist Board (1988) and a guide to the setting up of a national tourism
information office network for the government of Poland (1997).
Since the advent of the world wide web he has contributed to
training, information and marketing web sites on subjects as varied as
tourism trends, rural tourism development, the implications for tourism of
the war in Iraq and the history of coasteering.
Aviation
John
Stewart-Smith began his flying career on Harvards in Canada and went on to
fly jet fighters with the Royal Air Force. He became a flying instructor and
test pilot and commanded the Flying Wing at an RAF Master airfield. He served
on the Air Staff at Fighter Command as Command Flight Safety Officer and at
Strike Command as Fighter Operations. He then taught at the King Faisal Air
Academy at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia before being commissioned in the newly formed
Abu Dhabi Defence Force. He served there as a fighter pilot, transport pilot
and flight safety officer before moving to Force Headquarters with
responsibility for selecting and purchasing all new Air Force weapons and
aircraft. John returned to the UK to fly jets with the Royal Navy, and flew
as a civilian with FRADU from 1978 to 1982, operating Navy jets throughout
the Falklands War. Spinal injuries during an ejection ended his military
flying in 1982. His ‘office’ job took him around the world arranging
contracts for pilot and engineer training for foreign governments and for
many airlines. Retirement finally allowed time to take up gliding and he
gained an FAI Diamond award in Scotland.
John Stewart-Smith is a past member of the General Aviation Safety Council and was
editor of their journal ‘The Flight Safety Bulletin’ for six years. He is the
independent founding board member of the GA Confidential Human Factors
Incident Reporting Programme.
John has published widely on
aviation and flight safety matters. He was nominated by Airbus Industrie as
Aviation Journalist of the Year in 1998 and was a finalist in the world-wide
judging by the Royal Aeronautical Society. He was awarded a Certificate by
the Royal Aeronautical Society for his “outstanding contribution to the
understanding of aerospace.” A number of John’s Gremline articles have been
reprinted in periodicals and bulletins in the UK, New Zealand and the USA
through special arrangement with Hill House Publications.
Wildlife
John
Stewart-Smith has studied and photographed wildlife, and especially bird
life, from the Arctic Circle to the Antarctic. His photo library continues to
grow and currently extends to 35,000 images, mostly of birds from all corners
of the world.
He was the founder chairman
of the Abu Dhabi Natural History Group (ADNHG) which was later absorbed into
the United Arab Emirates University. He was an informal adviser to the
President of the UAE on conservation matters and assisted with an
International Falconry Convention in Abu Dhabi. He also arranged and took
part in a survey of the wildlife of the United Arab Emirates and surrounding
seas conducted by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and
Natural Resources (IUCN). He broadcast on conservation on Abu Dhabi radio as
well as writing articles for the local media. His photographs appear in many
periodicals and books, including ‘The United Arab Emirates’ 1975, ‘Dhows’
1977, ‘The Wildlife of Arabia’ 1981, ‘Now & Then The Emirates’ 1998, ‘Now
& Then Abu Dhabi’ 2001 & 2004 as well as in the Journal of the ADNHG
and ‘Tribulus.’
John is a Fellow of the
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and a member of the Wildfowl and
Wetlands Trust. He was Arabian correspondent for the International Waterfowl
Research Bureau (IWRB) and assisted with the work of the Ramsar Convention.
He has taken part in surveys of
bird populations and migration patterns in Spain, Gibraltar, Cyprus, Borneo,
Ecuador and other countries. He is a regular volunteer warden on RSPB Ramsey
Island reserve off the Pembrokeshire coast.
Historical
Over the past twenty years Barrie Foster has worked extensively on
historical and heritage projects for interpretative and information centres,
museums, destination development and marketing organisations, private tour
operators and day visitor attractions. Subject matter has ranged from the
Mesolithic to the Industrial Revolution and from the Crusades to World War
II. Barrie is a past associate editor of Archaeo News, published and
distributed by Diego Meozzi and Paola Arosio at
www.stonepages.com.
Broad background knowledge provides the foundation for detailed
research. The creative approach includes the identification of
project-specific themes and storylines. The intention, always, is to go
beyond the simple recitation of facts and introduce wider contexts and new
perspectives that can be employed across the full range of interpretative,
information and marketing material.
Barrie Foster FTS, MCIM, MISPAL, Chartered Marketer
The Old Coach House Mathry Haverfordwest Pembrokeshire Wales UK SA62
5HB
Phone: +44 (0)1348 831081 Fax +44 (0)1348 831081 E:
barrie.foster1@btinternet.com
© 2009 Barrie Foster & Associates unless otherwise
stated.
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