Consultancy

Alnpete Consultancy provides IT consultancy services, offering a wide range of skills to clients, although specialising in Information Security and Quality Management. Our underlying approach is the enablement of new and enhanced business models through the use of Internet technologies and electronic commerce. This is built on a deep, long-term and abiding understanding of the Internet, as well as the security, trust and quality mechanisms which are essential to assure online services. This combination of technological and commercial expertise makes Alnpete invaluable to businesses who wish to prosper in the brave new wired world.

Alnpete consultants have many years of experience in the financial services industry, as well as working for clients in retailing, telecommunications, trust services, electronic commerce, and security evaluation / testing.

Elsewhen Press

delivering outstanding new talents in speculative fiction

Elsewhen Press is a small independent publisher specialising in Speculative Fiction. Our titles are available from online retailers, in good bookshops, or from our own online bookshop.

Adopting a digital-first policy, Elsewhen Press titles are available on Amazon Kindle, Apple iTunes, Kobo and Google Play and as ePub from other eBook retailers (distributed by Gardners Digital Warehouse). We publish novels, novellas, epics, and anthologies of short stories, across the spectrum of genres contained within the super-genre of Speculative Fiction (including science fiction, fantasy, paranormal, horror).

Alnpete Press

An independent publisher for independent thinkers.

Alnpete Press is a small independent publisher with an exciting and innovative approach. Our titles are available directly through our own online bookshop, from online retailers such as Amazon and Blackwells, and in good bookshops such as Waterstone's and W.H.Smith.

We love reading good books.

That's why we want to publish good books.

The content is, of course, the single most important aspect of a good book.

But we know that other things contribute to the whole reading experience too:

The look
not just the cover but the look of the book as a whole,
when it's open, when it's closed, when it's on your shelf;
the colour of the paper;
the crispness of the typeface.

The feel
how it feels in your hand, when you're holding it, flicking through it, reading it;
the tactility of the cover;
the texture of the pages;
the strength and integrity of the binding,
assuring you that the pages won't suddenly fall out before you've even finished reading it for the first time!

The sound
that satisfying riffling sound as you flick through the pages.

The smell
the new book smell,
so much better than the musty smell of a damp, unloved book abandoned in an attic.

All of these are elements of what makes settling down to read a good book such an enriching part of life.

So we take each of these factors very seriously in the publication of our titles. We have a quality assurance process to ensure that the final book looks just the way the author intended. We don't cut any corners. We carefully choose the paper, cover board and printer to be as sure as possible that the production process delivers exactly what we want. Our preferred page size is 215x135mm (known as trade paperback or Demy) so we can be sure that there are sufficient margins on the page and the text doesn't look cramped. We use a digital suite to ensure that we retain complete and precise control over the final product.

Maybe we're obsessive about quality, but is that such a bad thing?

Alnpete Limited

A marriage of art and technology.

Alnpete offers you a unique combination of technological expertise and artistic flair. We provide world-class Consultancy to address your strategic needs, with many years of experience in the areas of the Internet, Electronic Commerce, and Online Services. We are publishers of both new and traditional media, as well as providing pre-press services for other small publishers. We operate the Flitz online shop for t-shirts and other cool stuff. We support a variety of other projects, including archaeological research such as an excavation at Lepcis Magna in North Africa.

Alnpete has been trading since the end of 1996, initially as a Web Design Studio, designing, building and hosting Web sites for a variety of clients. Inevitably, some clients required a certain amount of consultancy relating to the potential and practical use of the Internet, which led us to extend our range of services.

In June 1998, incorporated as Alnpete Limited, the business was expanded to enable clients’ requirements to be more comprehensively addressed, by adding the Alnpete Consultancy. This provided Internet consultancy to the studio’s clients, and IT consultancy to its own clients – especially in Internet-related, electronic commerce activities, and information security including Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and Online Trust Services, as well as Quality Management. The consultancy soon overtook the web design studio which has now become a predominantly internal resource.

Being involved in the design, production and publishing of various new media projects, we expanded into traditional media, launching the Alnpete Press imprint in May 2006. Having published a number of titles, we continue to explore options in this exciting medium, including making our titles available in alternative formats. Building on the expertise gained for the production of our own titles, in 2010 we set up Alnpete PrePress to offer those services, as well as consultancy, to other small publishers and even self-publishing authors. In 2011 we launched our Elsewhen Press imprint, specialising in Speculative Fiction.

Alnpete Limited is a virtual corporation, allowing maximum flexibility while reducing unnecessary overheads. Between them, the directors have many years of experience in IT, trading and electronic commerce systems, online services, publishing, and new media. This technical expertise combined with a flair for design is what gives Alnpete its unique character.

Click on the About Alnpete leaf for more details.

Alnpete PrePress

There’s many a slip 'twixt pen and bookshop

Book pre-production services for small independent publishers and self-publishing authors. These are provided by a team of professionals originally put together by the small independent UK publisher Alnpete Press to do the book design, cover art, and promotional material for its own titles. But it is expensive to maintain such a talented team with a small publishing schedule. It became clear that other small independent publishers were in need of the same skills, so the team became Alnpete PrePress separate from Alnpete Press. Although we still do all the pre-production work for Alnpete Press titles, our own virtual independence means we can stay together as a team, and offer our services to any other small independent publisher, or self-publishing author (the ultimate in small independents!)

The Flitz shop

The Flitz shop is an online shop selling an exciting range of t-shirts and other cool stuff. Exclusive designs, catering for a wide variety of tastes, some of which feature the flitz (semi-mythical intelligent birds discovered by our über-designer).

Flitz t-shirt ad

Supported Projects

There's more to life than just the bottom line

Alnpete supports a variety of projects, including archaeological research such as an exciting excavation at Lepcis Magna in North Africa, as well as a resource for artists.

Alnpete has been supporting archaeological projects since 1996, designing and hosting web sites when few archaeologists had any experience of the internet. In 1997, we launched a website presenting the exciting work being done on Dr. Hafed Walda’s dig at Lepcis Magna.

We also support Iconophilia, a project to support artists. Initially established as a site to promote Icons (the religious artworks, not the little images on computers!) – hence the name – especially those produced by one particular artist, it has become a host for a variety of other artists and arts-related projects.

Click on the Supported Projects leaf for more details.

Directors

The Board of Alnpete consists of two Directors, Al and Pete (hence Al’n’Pete). The Company Secretary is Karin.

Al

Al

Rôle: Chairperson
Title: Design Director
Alias: Principal Designer
Position: Recumbent

Colour: Blue
Charity: Greenpeace
Music: Fairport Convention / Grace Slick / Pink Floyd / Muse / Beethoven / Bach / Chopin …
Usual expression: Smiling

Al, Chairperson of Alnpete Limited, Design Director and Principal Design Consultant for Alnpete, has a Masters Degree in Systems Analysis as well as a classical training in art – a perfect match to the skills required for design in the modern digital world. Her mastery of both traditional techniques and digital tools such as 3D modelling and animation allow her to offer a full range of graphic design capability for both technical and non-technical uses. Her previous experience includes 5 years as an analyst working on the systems at the heart of securities and options trading in the City, for the London Stock Exchange and the London Traded Options Market. Her artwork has been exhibited in various places including Westminster Cathedral. She was designing websites in the earliest days of the World Wide Web. Her other talents include writing: she has two published novels with more on the way. She is also a publisher of speculative fiction books for the Elsewhen Press imprint, for which she has designed many of the covers.

Rôle: Cheese
Title: Consultancy Director
Alias: Principal Consultant
Position: Comfortable

Colour: Gold
Charity: IFAW
Music: Emerson Lake and Palmer / Samuel Barber / Ludovico Einaudi
Usual expression: Frowning

Pete

Peter

Pete, Director of the Alnpete Consultancy, and Principal Security Consultant for Alnpete, is a Chartered Information Technology Professional. He has a degree in Computing Science from Imperial College, followed by almost 40 years experience in the IT industry, specialising in security and trust services. Much of his early career was spent in the City at the Stock Exchange and then subsequently as a consultant to a number of major retail banking groups, a high street retail chain, a major telecommunications provider, security services provider and various financial services providers. More recently he has been working with security evaluation and testing laboratories as well as a number of organisations concerned with the effective implementation of electronic passports. He is also co-author of a patent for an authentication token. He has published various papers and articles on e-commerce and aspects of security including PKI, and Extended Access Control in the ICAO MRTD Report. As well as being a publisher of speculative fiction books for the Elsewhen Press imprint, in his spare time Peter has been known to write fiction.

Karin

Karin

Rôle: Company Secretary
Title: Ms
Position: Tenable

Colour: Blue
Charity: various (often does sponsored cycle rides for British Heart Foundation)
Music: Prokofiev / Bruce Springsteen
Usual expression: Raised eyebrows

Karin is a Chartered Secretary. With a background in Anatolian Archaeology, getting her degree from the Institute of Archaeology in London, she has made the obvious career progression into City regulation (!?). She cycles a lot, having completed the London-Brighton bike race on numerous occasions; she has completed the London marathon; and is interested in taxation (well, presumably someone has to be!)

People

Having been deluged by an e-mail requesting pictures of the Alnpete team (especially the webmaster – thanks Mum!) we now present an opportunity to meet the people behind Alnpete. As a virtual organisation, it seems fitting for you to meet our virtual selves while our real selves get on with the work. In the interests of bandwidth conservation, the boss suggested we use line-art rather than photographs (definitely not because we were worried about frightening the horses, children and prospective clients). So what follows is the boss’s view of the team, modestly starting with the boss herself.

The Boss

Al

Alias: CEO (Chief Etiological Officer)
Alias: Design Director
Alias: Principal Designer

Name: Al
Colour: Blue
Charity: Greenpeace
Music: Fairport Convention / Grace Slick / Pink Floyd / Muse / Beethoven / Bach / Chopin ...

Alias: COO (Chief Ontological Officer)
Alias: Consultancy Director
Alias: Principal Consultant

Name: Pete
Colour: Gold
Charity: IFAW
Music: Emerson Lake and Palmer / Samuel Barber / Ludovico Einaudi

The Guru

Peter

Legal Eagle

Karin

Alias: Company Secretary

Name: Karin
Colour: Blue
Charity: various
Music: Prokofiev / Bruce Springsteen

Name: Caro
Colour: British Racing Green
Charity: Friends of the Earth
Music: Adiemus
Comment: My main dilemma is squaring a love of Frog-eyed sprites with conservationism. As a famous philosopher once said “It’s hard being green.”

PR & Marketing

Caroline

Sales

Phil

Name: Phil
Colour: Green
Charity: Dolphin & Whale Conservation Society
Music: Jazz
Comment: In the words of Bob Geldof “Give us your … money!”

Name: Katya
Colour: Cyan
Charity: Greenpeace
Music: Loreena McKennitt
Comment: Please don’t call me, I’m not very good with people.

Customer Relationship Management

Katya

Finance

Doreen

Name: Doreen
Colour: Lilac
Charity: RSPCA
Music: Buddy Holly
Comment: I like cats and playing with bells (Doreen is an amateur campanologist - Chi)

Name: Chi
Colour: #CCFF99
Charity: Mrs Tiggywinkle’s
Music: Pink Floyd
Comment: Isn’t it cool to be paid to do this!

Webmaster

Chi

Contact us

There are a variety of ways to get in touch with Alnpete, ranging from the prosaic to the sublime:

Mail:

Alnpete,
PO Box 757,
DARTFORD,
DA2 7TQ

Telephone:

07956 237041 (Voicemail if busy)
+44 7956 237041 from outside the UK

E-mail:


Additional e-mail addresses are available for specific types of enquiry:

Sales/general info:

Finance/Accounts:

PR/Press enquiries:

New business:

The Boss:

Queries / comments / complaints / pedantic corrections about this web site should be addressed to

Boring legal bit

© Alnpete Limited.

The contents are published here on the Web for information purposes, however all rights are reserved in all the content of the site. No part of this site may be reproduced or published in whole or in part, by any means: mechanical, electronic, photographic, recording, telepathic or otherwise without the prior written permission of Alnpete Limited.

The material contained in this site is provided for general information only and does not constitute technical legal security or other professional advice. Alnpete Limited makes no representations or warranties about the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the information and related graphics published in this site. Neither Alnpete Limited nor any of its employees or other representatives will be liable for loss or damage arising out of or in connection with the use of this site.

To use the Alnpete Limited website you do not need to register or login or provide any personal information. We do not use any cookies on this website.

The leaf design, the flitz logo, Alnpete Consultancy, Alnpete Press, Alnpete PrePress, Flitz and Elsewhen Press are trademarks of
Alnpete Limited, Registered in England and Wales, No. 3574096
Registered office: Summit House, Highfield Road, Dartford, Kent DA1 2JY
VAT registration no. GB685 3892 79

Lepcis Magna

Alnpete has been supporting archaeological projects since 1996, designing and hosting web sites when few archaeologists had any experience of the internet. In 1997, we launched a website presenting the exciting work being done on Dr. Hafed Walda'a dig at Lepcis Magna in North Africa. We have been hosting the website ever since.

Lepcis Magna

Lepcis Magna is a Unesco World Heritage Site in the Tripolitania region of Libya. It is one of the best preserved and most significant Roman cities in Africa. The dig is highly regarded, and the website, which was among the earliest websites established for a specific archaeological project, won various awards.

The Scout Report for Social Sciences said:

“This site is an excellent example of how researchers can use the internet to present their findings in an engaging manner to both their peers and a more general audience.”

The website is still used regularly by students, is referenced from various online encyclopediae as well as the Unesco website, and continues to receive a significant volume of visitors from all around the world.

Click on the Lepcis Magna leaf to visit the website.

Iconophilia

Alnpete has been supporting the Iconophilia project for some years. Initially established as a site to promote Icons, especially those produced by one particular artist, it has become a host for a variety of other artists and arts-related projects.

Iconophilia

Click on the Iconophilia leaf to visit the website.