Swift Press
Swift Press is an independent British publishing house that launched in June 2020 and is part of the Independent Alliance. Its list includes fiction, a wide range of non-fiction and children's books.
What you can find
The website features the catalogue, author pages and news, with a dedicated page for each book.
Why it is on this list
Swift Press published Time to Think by journalist Hannah Barnes, an account of what happened at the Tavistock clinic's Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), the English gender service for children. According to the publisher, the service was initially set up to provide talking therapy. In 2022, the closure of the service was announced. The book was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize and the Orwell Prize for Political Writing. See also the Cass Review and young people.
Founding and ownership
According to the British trade publication The Bookseller, Swift Press was founded by Mark Richards, formerly a publisher at John Murray, and Diana Broccardo, formerly commercial director at Profile Books. The main investors are Geoffrey Faber Holdings and Set Copyrights, the co-owners of Faber & Faber. Swift Press works with Faber on sales. The publishing house later launched the Forum imprint, headed by George Owers, who came from Polity Press. Forum publishes books that challenge conventional views and presents itself on its website as a place for free debate and dissenting voices.
A closer look at Time to Think
The hardback and e-book were published on 23 February 2023, followed by the paperback on 28 March 2024. Hannah Barnes worked as a journalist on the BBC programme Newsnight, where she led coverage of gender care for young people. According to the publisher, the book is based on hundreds of hours of interviews with former GIDS clinicians and patients. The book page states that over a ten-year period, the service referred around 2,000 children for puberty blockers, including children as young as nine, and that the patient group shifted from prepubescent boys to mainly teenage girls with additional problems. The page cites reviews from, among others, The Observer, The Sunday Times and the Financial Times. The homepage also mentions a nomination for the 2026 Unwin Award.
How to use and assess this source
Swift Press is a general publisher, not an organisation involved in gender care. The text on the book page is promotional copy from the publisher, and the review quotes were selected by the publisher. The book itself is the source for its content. Anyone wishing to assess its findings should compare them with official British documents, such as those from NHS England.