The book was not written for students or academia; it aims to encourage freelance translators to adopt diversification as a risk-reduction strategy, helping them to safeguard against boredom, plummeting word rates, social isolation or potential lack of income at times of physical strain or injury. Nicole has done a brilliant job in examining the views of 250 practising freelance translators and putting together an almost exhaustive collection of articles and interviews by some of the brightest and most engaging professionals in the translation community today. Demonstrating the global nature of that community, the 50 linguists contributing to the book represent different parts of the world, yet are well-known to us as bloggers, conference speakers, trainers or active members in our associations. Some of them I have even met personally. A few of them write about the current trends and best practices in the industry, whilst others share their own success story in diversifying their services. For many, it was not a planned course of action but rather a decision to develop new skills in response to a call for them.

In analysing their stories, Nicole determines and demonstrates a diversification strategy for freelancers who already operate a solid translation business. The progression path goes from 鈥楾ranslation鈥� to 鈥楲inguistic Diversification鈥� (examples of this include editing texts written by non-native speakers, machine translation post-editing, voice-over, subtitling, transcription, transcreation, copywriting, cross-cultural consulting, linguistic validation, language teaching and interpreting); to 鈥楨xtra-Linguistic Diversification鈥� (project management, strategic alliances with fellow freelancers, blogging, social media, online marketing, specialisation in domains and differentiation from competition); to 鈥楶assive Diversification鈥� (turning the standard time-based translation activity into a product that only needs to be produced once and then resold multiple times e.g. publications, continuing professional development or online training courses); to 鈥楨xternal Diversification鈥� (offering specialised services to fellow translation professionals e.g. coaching, business training, consultation, DTP or public speaking) and finally to 鈥楧istinctive Diversification鈥� (creating a unique service or product e.g. Mox鈥檚 Blog 鈥� comic books about the life of a translator; Translator Pay 鈥� a foreign exchange and money transfer service; Translators Without Borders 鈥� a non-profit global aid organisation; or Rainy London Branding 鈥� an identity and branding consultancy for translators).

This inspiring collection of real-life testimonies is a tribute to the agility and innovation of professionals tackling an inevitable change in the circumstances affecting their working lives. Although the translation industry will undoubtedly continue to flourish due to the increasing data volume on a global scale, a generalist translator with purely linguistic expertise may struggle to find satisfactory demand for their services in the face of technological advancements and new consumer expectations. None of the writers of this book wishes to compel translators to abandon the occupation they love and have invested years in training for, but diversification will certainly help all of us to find our niche in the brave new translation world.

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For many people, the appeal of salty liquorice lies more in the faces pulled by their co-workers after spotting this Nordic oddity than in the item itself. Dividing opinion since the 1930s, reactions to it range from utter delight to the complete disappearance of any facial feature whatsoever as people attempt to prevent it from entering their systems by any means.

Thought to have originally been developed as a kind of cough medicine 鈥� which makes sense really if you stop to consider its similarity to some varieties of Lancashire鈥檚 famous sinus-debunging Fisherman鈥檚 Friends, which also have a select and dedicated fan base 鈥� salty liquorice has long been sold across the Nordic region as confectionary. Nowadays our Nordic cousins take great delight in feeding it to unsuspecting visitors, who, after a brief moment of watery-eyed assessment, will either spit it across the room or offer up a determined 鈥榠t鈥檚 getting better鈥� before soon being a firm convert to its disputed delights.

However, despite this clear divide, salty liquorice has slowly but surely been sneaking its way onto shelves in sweetshops up and down the UK. One might attribute this to our current and apparent obsession with all things Nordic, but really, who would go so far as to eat something just because Harry Hole, Kurt Wallander or Sarah Lund happens to favour it? There can only be one explanation really: it鈥檚 tasty stuff, and a conversation starter to boot, so why not give it a try?

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