Opening the Book Furniture team

Helen Thomas - Director

Helen has worked in the book trade for over twenty years. She started her career as a bookseller and gained extensive experience working both in general and academic bookselling. After successfully overseeing a refurbishment of a major city centre bookshop Helen was asked to join Dillons Bookstores' Head Office to help to manage their expansion programme specifically looking at store layout, developing shelving systems and stock range. Her role was further expanded and she became Head of Marketing for Dillons Bookstores responsible for a budget of over £2 million per annum.

Today, as well as being a director of Opening the Book Furniture, Helen runs Book Communications, an independent consultancy working within the library and literature sectors. Book Communications has project manged a wide range of library-based initiatives, including arts-based consultation for Bolton Libraries, writing Brent's successful Big Lottery application and programming Young Readers, Birmingham's children's book festival.

Jane Jackson - Marketing Manager

Jane has worked in marketing and advertising for over 10 years. With a love of the arts and a marketing education, she decided to combine the two by working firstly in a theatre and then the BBC. She later became Promotions Manager at Dillons Bookstores, where she managed a national programme of marketing activity for the group.

Jane left Dillons Bookstores for an intended 3 month stint exploring the world but returned 2 years later having worked in various marketing agencies in New Zealand and Australia.

Since returning to the UK, Jane has worked for McCann Erickson advertising implementing marketing campaigns for various retailers & fmcg brands and in August 2004, joined Opening the Book as Marketing Manager.

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Anya Agnew - Sales Co-ordinator

Anya joined Opening the Book Furniture in April 2007 and is responsible for keeping our customers happy - from dealing with enquiries and processing orders to keeping you informed and listening to your comments and suggestions.

Anya has a varied and interesting range of experiences, including working for the police as a trained scene of crime officer and handling the recruitment for Create a Future (a charity that promotes science and engineering in schools). Anya is a keen reader and is enjoys discussing and sharing her reading experiences with her colleagues at Opening the Book.

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Ellen Coakley

Ellen Coakley is the most recent member of the Opening the Book Furniture team, having recently completed the International Baccalaureate at college. Ellen looks after processing orders, deliveries, and invoices, and she is also on hand to deal with any questions and queries from our customers.