Portfolio – some recent work
Copywriting
As a freelance copywriter at the agency Maverick, Mike has written training scripts, advertisements, brochures, marketing copy for a prestigious portfolio of clients.
He has also written and designed reports and brochures for a variety of clients including Watford FC’s Community Sports and Education Trust which published a book he wrote to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the club’s charity arm. He is also a co-editor of of The Watford Treasury a visual history of the football club in a series of magazine issues to which Mike also contributes a number of articles. Mike also helped produce a major volume to celebrate 100 Years at Vicarage Road in 2022 as well as producing a series of videos (see below).
We also work with the Marketing Department of the Technical University of Delft (TUDelft) with web and print marketing copy for the unique range of specialised courses offered. We take academics’ drafts and rewrite them, making them attractive to the global market place for online learning.
Scriptwriting and development
Watford FC 100 Years at Vicarage Road
Alongside the book we helped produce to celebrate 100 Years at Vicarage Road for Watford Foorball Club we made a series of videos describing the evolution of the club through the decades, with archive footage, supporter interviews and graphics. You can watch them here. We also commissioned a computer graphics treatment of the 100 years of Watford’s history at the Vicarage Road ground which was shown on the big screen at matches and on the club’s social media.
Lepaya Virtual Reality Training packages
We helped develop a series of Power Skills training sessions delivered through virtual reality headsets for the international training agency Lepaya based in Amsterdam. Highly interactive training involves developing realistic business scenarios and adding multiple choice questions to enable learners to successfully continue the conversations with the on screen avatars. With alternative routes depending on answers selected the storyboard post-it notes covered several walls.
Everything English
Mike created a four level DVD series to supplement the teaching of English in secondary schools in southern Europe. He developed the syllabuses, co-wrote, with former BBC World Service colleague Nuala O’Sullivan, 36 ten-minute films which combine carefully structured drama sequences and cross-curricular documentaries. These include interactive comprehension questions, coloured subtitles to indicate key functional language and replays of key scenes to ensure retention. The first market is Spain where the DVDs were launched in late 2015 to great acclaim.
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Videotel for the Baltic and International Maritime Council
We provide scripts and storyboard outlines for a series of interactive screen-based diploma packages on aspects of maritime law and commercial practices.
The latest is on Voyage Chartering. Using video, interviews, graphics and a high degree of interactivity the modules have proved very successful.
Journalism
The magazine Zoom Japan which covers all aspects of life in Japan and all things Japanese in the UK asked us to visit the newly opened Muga restaurant and review it. The subsequent article included interviews and our photographs. I also wrote an article for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenement’s Enlightenment magazine about a forthcoming Bruckner concert at London’s Southbank. It sold out – probably not entirely due to me! I’ve also contributed player profiles and other articles to matchday programmes at Watford FC on a regular basis.
Editing and native language checking
Through a link with the Utrecht-based agency Context Company we have engaged in the co-development of native language accurate examination scripts for BureauICE which sets the English language competence tests for Dutch students to progress to further and higher education. We also work with a number of other publishers in the Netherlands checking their titles for accurate representations of current English.
Writing and native language checking
This Dutch publisher of vocational training books and videos wanted to internationalise its catalogue and Verbalists worked on eight titles in 2023-24 ranging from Beer Knowledge, Working as an Independent Chef, Organising Internal Events and the World of Commerce. Original Dutch scripts had been translated by AI but needed considerable editing and rewriting to make them valuable resources for the students.
For the Dutch publisher Malmberg we contributed original listening and reading scripts as well as checking all the native language texts for a series of new English language course books for Dutch secondary schools.
Writing workbooks and training activities
We have written and conceived pre-conference activities for adults, interactive on screen materials for children and adults and developed workbooks and worksheets to extend learning from video projects.
Blogging
Blogging
We write an occasional blog mostly about our travels. I have also contributed to blogs for others from time to time and am always happy to engage in short form projects of this kind. 
Verbalists designed and maintains a website with regular blogs for the outstanding British tenor saxophone player Alan Skidmore. Take a look at alanskidmore.info for some sights and sounds from the six-decade career of this renowned and much-loved musician.
In 2021 we wrote a series of blogs and the script for a concert of Restoration Music by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Audio Production
Through a UK company, International Language Services, I keep my ELT production skills honed by producing audio tracks for a series of English language readers for the German publisher Hueber Verlag in Munich. The readers range from beginner to quite advanced levels so involve directing voice over artists for appropriate pace and clarity in the downloadable audiobook versions of the texts. 2024 saw Verbalists completing their tenth title in the series. They are some cracking stories too.
