An appreciation of the coursebook-writing work of Brian Abbs and Ingrid Freebairn has recently appeared in ELT Journal. Rixon, S. and Smith, R. (2012) 'The work of Brian Abbs and Ingrid Freebairn', ELT Journal 66/3: 383-393.

On 23rd February 2011, Brian Abbs and Ingrid Freebairn received a joint ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ at the ELTons (British Council Innovation Awards) ceremony in London (See the video of their acceptance speech (2nd video down)). This was the first such award in the history of the ELTons, and was given in acknowledgement of ‘a consistent body of work and a massive contribution’ to the ELT profession. The effects of their work have been felt all over the world by adults but even more so by millions of teenagers and younger learners who have used books from their jointly authored series, all published by Longman: – Strategies; Discoveries; Blueprint (also adapted as Flying Start); Snapshot (also adapted as In Focus, Postcards, and Reflex); and Sky.

When the Warwick ELT Archive officially opened in 2005, Brian Abbs donated several boxes of pre-publication materials relating to Strategies and other series. in 2011, in the course of preparing our Survey Review ('The work of Brian Abbs and Ingrid Freebairn') for ELT Journal, we received a substantial donation of their books from Pearson Longman (Adam Gadsby), which enabled us to compile a comprehensive bibliography.