A former regional press man has been appointed to run the French language arm of the publish on demand service Writersworld.

The venture, headed up by Roderick Craig, will be the precursor and pilot of German and Spanish language versions, all of which will be interlinked to give clients' books more exposure.

He started his career in newspapers for a London court reporting service, then became reporter and later sub-editor for the St Pancras Chronicle, and a group of eight other weeklies in Camden, Westminster, Hampstead, Highgate, and Marylebone, as well as for Kentish Express.

Roderick has also served as specialist editor for the Kent Messenger group of newspapers and owned a series of four weeklies. His working life has included stints for the BBC, Daily Telegraph, The Times, Daily Mail, Daily Express, Evening News, and Southern Television.

He has also worked abroad and been involved in the management and writing for many specialist publications in the UK.

He is bilingual with French and also speaks Spanish, German and Arabic.

Company proprietor Graham Cook said: "Writersworld is proud to announce that as part of our expansion plans we have entered into a joint venture agreement for creating and operating a French language version of our website, based in France.

"The French venture will be directed by Roderick Craig, whose experience of publishing is, to say the least, impressive. Needless to say, we wish Roderick every success because his success will further advance the aims of Writersworld and its clients."

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