About Us

About ideas4writers

ideas4writers began in November 2001. It was based on a quote by Whitbread Book of the Year winner, Philip Pullman.

Philip Pullman
Philip Pullman

“Where do you get your ideas from?” an interviewer asked him. Tongue firmly in cheek, he replied: “I subscribe to www.ideas.r.us.com. For £25 a month I get 30 ideas, new and unused, success guaranteed. You can get second-hand more cheaply, but they don’t come with a guarantee, and they wear out.”

Although ideas.r.us was a fictional site, the idea struck a chord with our founder Dave Haslett. He was looking for an outlet for the thousands of ideas he had come up with over the years that he would never have time to use. Nine months of research, design and programming – and lots of very late nights – followed. Finally, he launched the ideas4writers website on 12th August 2002.

Over the following years, Dave also put the ideas into book form, creating the 35 volumes of the ideas4writers ideas collection.

The Date-A-Base Book series (now in its twentieth year) began as a small monthly list of historical anniversaries. Readers demanded more, so Dave expanded the small monthly lists into an annual book series. He also wrote other books to share his knowledge of writing and publishing techniques.

About Dave Haslett

Dave Haslett
Dave Haslett

Dave wrote his first book at the age of 13 (an illustrated encyclopaedia of freshwater tropical fish). Since then he has written numerous other non-fiction books, novels, short stories and articles, and has built up a wealth of knowledge and experience.

He is also a qualified computer programmer, network engineer, web designer and ICT trainer, and feels perfectly at home when he’s up to his elbows in the innards of a computer. He helped build one of the first intranets in the UK, and pioneered the development of touch-screen information kiosks.

Dave is the author of The Fastest Way to Write Your Book, the ideas4writers ideas collection, the Date-A-Base Book series, and lots of other books that are available to buy on this site.

Stained glass panel made by Lorraine Coram, partner of ideas4writers' founder
Stained glass panel made by Lorraine Coram

Dave’s partner is the stained glass/fused glass artist Lorraine Coram.

If you’re interested in buying beautiful handmade glass gifts for a loved one, or you’re looking for bespoke lamps, lampshades, windows or door panels to match your décor, you might like to take a look at her website: lorrainecoramglass.com