After 20 years of working in the world of direct marketing Bradford businesswoman Judith Donovan has decided to share her expertise with others.

Some people may consider publishing a book about how to carry out direct marketing a foolish move, as Mrs Donovan is chairman of her own direct marketing company JDA, based in Thornbury, Bradford.

But she does not think so. She said: "The book is not aimed at people with some expertise learning a bit more about direct marketing. It is aimed at people who cannot afford the fees a company like mine will charge and want to have a go at doing direct marketing themselves.

"In fact, far from encouraging competition, it will, hopefully, stop people doing direct marketing badly. It should lift standards because I have seen some poor attempts at direct marketing in the past and the idea of this book is to help people do it better."

The book is called DIY Direct Marketing - An Essential Guide for Beginners. It reveals the secrets of Mrs Donovan's craft and guides the reader through each step of creating a direct marketing campaign. It started as a series of articles for a direct marketing magazine and was developed in stages over the past 12 years.

It includes a wide number of examples of marketing campaigns she has been involved with through JDA which was formed in 1982 and now employs 60 people.

The firm handles clients all over the UK in the fields of mail order, financial services, retail, charity, business-to-business services and manufacturing.

She says the idea for the book came about as she travelled the country as a businesswoman, chairman of Bradford & District Training & Enterprise Council and latterly as president of Bradford Chamber of Commerce.

"I spoke with people who had not chance to paying the fees a firm like mine charges, so I wrote the book to give them a chance of doing some direct marketing for themselves," she added.

Mrs Donovan, who has been described as the Queen of Direct Marketing, was advertising manager at Bradford mail order giant Grattan before she formed JDA as a one-woman firm.

She became chairman of Bradford & District Training & Enterprise Council in 1990 and was named Yorkshire Businesswoman of the Year in 1997 when she also became a CBE. Last year she became a Member of the Guild of Freemen.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.